Groundbreaking Heart Surgery Performed at Lourdes

Lourdes continues to advance cardiovascular care for the region and the state of Kentucky by offering a new minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS).  Only 20 percent of cardiothoracic surgeons across the country are qualified to do this procedure, and Dr. James O’Rourke and Dr. Omid Javadi are two of them, making Lourdes the first in the state and the region to offer the MICS procedure.

The MICS procedure does not involve a sternotomy (cracking of the chest) to gain access to the heart.  The surgery is performed through a small incision made under the patient’s breast, whereby Dr. O'Rourke and Dr. Omid Javadi use special instruments to access the heart through the rib cage. The incision is about 3 inches instead of the 6 to 8-inch incision required for a traditional sternotomy.

“There are lots of advantages to not stopping the heart and cracking open the chest,” says Dr. James O’Rourke. “Basically it’s a three-inch incision just below the left breast.  We’ve been doing this procedure since August and have not had to transfuse any of these patients.”

Dr. Omid Javadi says there are numerous benefits to the MICS procedure.  “Patients have a shorter hospital stay, have less bleeding, a reduced chance of infection, and return to normal, unrestricted activities the day they go home from the hospital.”  

The average hospital stay after minimally invasive cardiac surgery is two days, while traditional open heart surgery is three to four days.

Minimally invasive cardiac surgery can be used as an approach to valve repair, valve replacement, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

Joseph Orlando of Clinton, Kentucky, is Dr. O’Rourke’s second patient to undergo the MICS procedure.  Orlando’s multi-bypass surgery was done without stopping his heart and without being put on a heart pump.

“I was up and out of my bed moving, probably the first day,” says Orlando.  “Had I still been in my office job, I probably could have done back to work the following Monday.”

Pictured at right is Dr. James P. O'Rourke and MICS patient Joseph Orlando.