Dameron Hospital | Health Outlook | Spring 2018

CARE is best received close to home. That’s one of the most important reasons we established the Stanford Cardiac Surgery Program at Dameron Hospital: to enhance the level of cardiac care available to patients in our local community by bringing in the latest heart surgery techniques to our patients without having to leave the area. “In the short time that we’ve been running our cardiac surgery program, we’ve already developed new approaches to treating patients experiencing heart failure,” says Eric Keyser, MD, Medical Director of the Stanford Cardiac Surgery Program at Dameron Hospital. One life saved In one recent case, for example, a patient was in Dameron’s Cath Lab being treated for a heart attack through the use of catheters to access and reopen the blocked arteries in their heart. During the procedure, the patient unexpectedly went into cardiogenic shock, which is a risk for patients in that situation. Cardiogenic shock occurs when the heart suddenly can’t pump enough oxygen- rich blood to the body, even though it continues to beat, according to Dr. Keyser. The most common cause is damage to the heart muscle from a severe heart attack. Cardiogenic shock is the leading cause of death when heart attacks occur. The attending cardiologist and the Cath Lab team immediately worked on stabilizing the patient for emergency heart surgery to save his life. To maintain blood flow, the team inserted an Impella device, which is a small, high-tech heart pump that is inserted directly into the heart. “I was able to successfully perform a coronary artery bypass on the patient’s beating heart while the Impella helped to maintain his blood circulation during the entire procedure,” Dr. Keyser says. “Heart surgery is typically performed by temporarily stopping the heart while maintaining the patient’s blood and oxygen circulation using a heart-lung machine, but the Impella allowed me to work on the heart while it continued to beat on its own. This method is more advanced and generally has better patient outcomes.” “Once the surgical procedure was completed, the Impella was removed and the patient’s heart fully resumed normal circulatory function on its own,” he says. “The patient was discharged from the hospital within a week.” Technology + team “I think this is a perfect example of how we all work together for the benefit of our patients,” continues Dr. Keyser. “Our Cardiac Surgery Program not only benefits patients who are scheduled for heart surgery; we are also here to back up our cardiologists in the Cath Lab who are treating heart attacks using minimally invasive, nonsurgical approaches. This is an example of the excellent level of care we are providing at Dameron. We’re able to save lives by creatively leveraging the latest technologies and working together as a team to yield the best possible clinical outcomes for our patients.” Dameron leverages the team approach and new technologies to save lives GET INFORMED. Visit dameronheartsurgery.com to learn more about our lifesaving collaboration with Stanford. dameronhospital.org 3 Eric Keyser, MD CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY INNOVATION Reinventing how we deliver heart care