Experience
The ability to assemble multidisciplinary teams and the use of advanced diagnostic capabilities set PENN Cardiac Care High Risk CABG Programs apart from other programs in the Delaware Valley.  PENN Cardiac Care cardiothoracic surgeons utilize advanced diagnostic capabilities, including:

• PET
• MR Angiography
• Noninvasive techniques in our echocardiography laboratory

They also work closely with dedicated cardiac anesthesia and critical care teams and use high-quality clinical resources -- renal medicine, infectious disease, blood banking, to name a few -- to ensure that complex cases have the best chance of survival. 

PENN Cardiac Care surgeons are committed to an extensive risk/benefit analysis for each patient to see if the intended surgery will improve the patient’s long-term survival, and weigh those chances against the surgical risks, taking into account the patient’s age, medical history, and other medical problems. This thorough assessment enables our surgeons to treat many complex cases denied at other institutions. 

Advanced Techniques
Patients with coronary artery disease and neurological conditions also pose special challenges. Frequently these are patients with a history of stroke, who are at high risk of additional strokes during or immediately after heart surgery. PENN Cardiac Care surgeons and cardiovascular anesthesiologists have developed perfusion techniques that reduce the risk of stroke while the patient is on the heart-lung machine. 

Second Bypass Surgery
Increasingly, patients that require second or even third bypass surgeries are being treated by PENN Cardiac Care surgeons. Typically, this surgery occurs with patients who have had coronary bypass surgery 10 to 15 years before and whose original grafts are occluded.  

PENN Cardiac Care physicians have a high success rate for re-operative procedures.  Our success is attributed to the high number of cases performed, as well as the dedicated resources and depth of clinical experience applied in managing our patients. Re-operations for coronary artery bypass grafting currently account for up to 10% of all coronary artery procedures performed by our surgical teams; the success rate is in the range of 97% when these re-operations are performed electively.