Hybrid Procedure Offers Heart Patients the Best of Both Worlds

Hybrid Revascularization

Still not available in most U.S. hospitals, the hybrid revascularization is being perfomed at Dr. Rafael Moguel’s Clinics of the Heart at the modern Costamed Hospital in Cozumel, Mexico.

Coronary Stent & Surgical Bypass

A hybrid technique that combines coronary stenting with minimally invasive, surgical bypass surgery, both reduces the risk of surgical complications and speeds recovery in patients with multiple blockages of the coronary arteries.

The two-stage procedure avoids the need to split the chest in order to operate on the heart, as is done in conventional coronary artery bypass surgery. Instead, “keyhole” surgery is performed on a beating heart through small incisions between the ribs. The cardiac surgeon re-routes blood flow around the most critical blockages using internal mammary arteries (IMAs) taken from the chest and stitched to the heart. The remaining blockages are treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a procedure that typically involves both angioplasty and stenting.

Rapid Recovery

With the hybrid procedure, patients get the best of both worlds: the short recovery typical of PCI and the survival benefit of having an IMA grafted to the left anterior descending artery, which supplies blood to 60% of the heart muscle.

The speed of recovery makes the hybrid procedure very appealing to patients when compared to open-chest bypass surgery. The difference is that during the first three months after conventional bypass surgery, patients have a prolonged recovery that is disabling for them. Most people would seek any alternative so they could avoid that. Instead, you can convalesce on the white sandy beaches of Cozumel or Playa del Carmen in the beautiful Riviera Maya.

The hybrid program clearly offers benefits in terms of better quality of life and quicker recovery.

Clinics of the Heart is accepting patients who wish to receive more information regarding the hybrid revascularization procedure email info@clinicsoftheheart.com.