Inova Fairfax Hospital Performs 30,000 Heart Surgeries in 30 Years

October 31st, 2007

Manassas Man Becomes 30,000th Heart Surgery Patient

Falls Church, VA— This month cardiac surgeons at the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, located on the campus of Inova Fairfax Hospital, performed the 30,000th heart surgery in Inova’s history. On Tuesday, Oct. 16, a 67-year-old Manassas man received a coronary artery bypass grafting, a procedure that detours blood around a narrowed or blocked artery in order to restore blood flow to the heart muscle.

“This is the one of our more commonly performed major heart operations,” said Nelson Burton, MD, surgical director, Heart and Lung Transplantation, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, who performed the procedure. “The patient is doing very well and has returned home where he will continue his recovery.”

Inova Fairfax Hospital created its open-heart surgery program in 1977 when surgeons performed an atrial septal defect repair.

In the three decades since, the hospital has been the site of significant medical “firsts” and has celebrated a number of exciting milestones:

• 1986: Surgeons at Inova Fairfax Hospital perform the first successful heart transplant in the Washington, DC region.
• 1991: The Washington, DC area’s first single lung transplant is performed at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
• 1992: The first combined heart-kidney transplant in the Washington, DC area is performed at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
• 1998: Inova Fairfax Hospital becomes the first in the nation to implant the bi-ventricular device, a pacemaker that stimulates both heart ventricles.
• 2001: Inova Fairfax Hospital is the first in the Washington, DC region to use a surgical robot, the da Vinci Surgical System, to assist in heart surgery.

The use of robotics and the development of minimally invasive techniques have advanced cardiac surgery in the last decade. Today surgeons can access and repair parts of the heart with tiny incisions, which means a faster recovery for patients.

“The advances in technology that we’ve seen through the years have been astounding,” said Edward Lefrak, MD, medical director, Cardiac Surgery, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, who founded the program in 1977. “The move to develop a comprehensive heart and vascular institute for both adults and children was a multi-step process forged by a team approach of physicians and the Inova administration.”

The cardiac surgery program that started in 1977 has grown and become part of the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, a 156-bed facility that opened in 2004 on the campus of Inova Fairfax Hospital. The facility was built and constructed with the purpose of combining innovation and state-of-the-art technology with all aspects of a healing environment. It houses six operating rooms, an 11-room catheterization and electrophysiology suite, cardiac rehabilitation, an outdoor healing garden and an observation dome, used to educate area students about preventative steps they can take to care for their hearts.

U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Inova Fairfax Hospital’s heart and heart surgery program as one of the top 25 in the country. For more information about Inova’s heart services, log on to www.inova.org/heart.

Inova Health System is a not-for-profit health care system based in Northern Virginia that consists of hospitals and other health services including emergency and urgent care centers, home care, nursing homes, mental health and blood donor services, and wellness classes. Governed by a voluntary board of community members, Inova’s mission is to improve the health of the diverse community we serve through excellence in patient care, education and research.