No two hearts are alike, so your treatment shouldn’t be either.

Whether you need coronary artery bypass surgery or surgery to repair a damaged heart valve, you need a doctor who understands your condition and has the tools and expertise to find the problem and recommend a treatment or procedure.

Experience and Excellence

Our Palm Beach Health Network heart specialists have performed thousands of open-heart surgeries. Heart Care of Palm Beach is ranked among the best places in the nation for heart attack, heart failure and surgical care.

We’ll stay with you from the day you’re admitted through your recovery to put your heart on a new path for the future.

Heart Surgery

Heart surgery is any type of surgery that requires a surgeon to open the chest and operate on the heart muscle, valves, arteries or the aorta and other large arteries connected to the heart. During some open-heart surgeries, the heart is connected to a heart-lung bypass machine or bypass pump. The heart is in a state of controlled arrest, while connected to the bypass machine. The bypass pump does the work of the heart and lungs by adding oxygen to the blood. It then circulates the blood to other organs in the body while removing carbon dioxide.

Palm Beach Health Network’s open-heart surgery program includes an experienced team of cardiovascular experts, including cardiovascular surgeons, cardiologists, cardiac nurses, nurse practitioners and highly-skilled surgical technicians. We perform off-pump coronary artery bypass, graft surgery and more such as the following:

• Aortic Root Replacement
• Aortic Surgery
• Atrial Myxoma Resection
• Atrial Septal Defect Repair
• Carotid Endarterectomy
• Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
• Foramen Ovale Repair
• Heart Valve Repair/Replacement Surgery
• Minimally Invasive Aortic Valve Replacement
• Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Repair or Replacement
• Off-Pump Procedure Bypass
• Pacemaker Lead Extraction
• Pericardiectomy
• Repair Aortic Aneurysm/Dissection (Ascending and Descending)
• Repair Ventricular Aneurysm
• Robotic Thoracic Surgery
• Thoracic Endoscopy
• Thoracic Surgery
• Thoracotomy
• Valve Repair/Replacement
• Vascular Surgery
• Ventricular Septal Defect Repair
• Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery

Potential Benefits Compared to Traditional Heart Surgery:

• Smaller incision
• Smaller scar
• Less pain
• Shorter hospital stay
• Faster return to work and activities

Talk to your physician to determine if you are a candidate for minimally invasive heart surgery.

When to See a Cardiac Surgeon?

Your primary care doctor will refer you to a cardiologist to evaluate your heart health condition. If the cardiologist decides you need surgery, he or she may refer you to a cardiac surgeon. Cardiac surgeons can also be referred to as cardiothoracic surgeons (work on heart and organs in chest cavity), cardiovascular surgeons (work on heart and large vessels) or general thoracic surgeons (work on heart and organs in chest). Congenital heart surgeons specialize in treating children’s heart problems. A cardiac surgeon is a specially-trained surgeon who uses surgical techniques when medical and non-invasive approaches are not an option for treating some cardiovascular conditions. This heart surgeon may perform heart bypass procedures, heart defect repair, aortic aneurysm repair or open heart surgery. Palm Beach Health Network Physician Groups cardiac health doctors and nurses are trained in the latest heart disease surgeries and use advanced technology to care for you and treat your heart condition.

How Do You Prepare for Heart Surgery?

Your healthcare provider will provide detailed instructions. Typical information to help you prepare for surgery includes:

• Eating your evening meal the day before your surgery but make sure to not consume any food or drink after midnight
• Having all personal information on hand such as your list of medications (including over-the-counter medications, vitamins and herbs), recent illness (including herpes outbreak, cold, flu or fever) and insurance information
• Taking a bath the night before the surgery. Your doctor may ask you to use an antibacterial soap to help lower the risk of an infection after surgery
• Avoiding smoking and not taking blood-thinning medications (aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen) two weeks before surgery
• Informing your doctor about your typical alcohol consumption to prevent alcohol withdrawal that may cause life-threatening complications after open-heart surgery such as seizures and tremors

Recovery and Pain Management

Taking care of yourself is an important part of the recovery process. Make sure to regularly check your incisions and report signs of infection to your doctor, such as oozing, redness, warmth along the incision site or if you develop fever. Take your prescriptions as recommended to manage pain and to decrease the likelihood of blood clots or pneumonia and get enough sleep. 

Recovery may take up to six months before you notice the full benefit of the surgery but grafts can work for many years. Your doctor may recommend a specific cardiac rehabilitation program that can offer specialist support and help with other aspects of your recovery.