Beating heart surgery has its perks
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| Dr. Pervaiz Chaudhry |
And while his peers might have similar numbers, Dr. Chaudhry does things a little bit differently – he’s operated on 100% of his coronary artery bypass patients while their hearts were still beating.
This concept, known as off-pump or beating heart surgery, isn’t new. It’s just what he prefers over using a cardiopulmonary bypass (heart-lung) machine, a method that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery to maintain the body’s blood flow and oxygen content.
Dr. Chaudhry said only 16% to 20% of cases across the country are done off-pump, but at Community Medical Centers it’s more than 70%.
While Dr. Chaudhry said he is trained to perform coronary artery bypass surgery either way, he notes several benefits of the off-pump procedure:
- Significantly lower mortality rate for high-risk patients
- Patients scored better in cognition, attention and memory, while 90% of heart-lung machine patients showed impairment
- Lower incidence of stroke
- Less heart cell damage
- Less blood loss
- Less costly
“At this stage, Community has excellent results,” Dr. Chaudhry said. “The mortality is equal or better than state or national average on these off-pump cases.”
The majority of Dr. Chaudhry’s patients are treated at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno, and he also operates at Community’s Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital on Audubon Drive near Friant Avenue.
“In all parameters – we call them core measures – Community Regional is one of the leading hospitals at this time,” Dr. Chaudhry said. “And many improvements have occurred since we moved [from University Medical Center] to this new wing with a brand new intensive care unit and operating rooms.”
Dr. Chaudhry added that patients usually complain about waking up from surgery with a tube in their mouths from intubation, but he said he is able to remove the tubing in the operating room for 60% to 70% of his patients.
“I’ve seen the results,” Dr. Chaudhry said. “For the past year I have not discharged a patient on dialysis for kidney failure. I have not had a patient who’s had a stroke. I have sent people home within 48 hours of the surgery. It is rare that I have to give them any blood products.”
This story was reported by Eddie Hughes. He can be reached at eddieh@communitymedical.org.