Heart Surgery News and Research

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Heart surgery is done to correct problems with the heart. More than half a million heart surgeries are done each year in the United States for a variety of heart problems. Heart surgery is used to correct heart problems in children and adults. This article discusses heart surgeries for adults. For more information about heart surgeries for children, see the Diseases and Conditions Index articles on congenital heart defects, holes in the heart, and tetralogy of Fallot.

The most common type of heart surgery for adults is coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). During CABG, surgeons use healthy arteries or veins taken from another part of the body to bypass (that is, go around) blocked arteries. CABG relieves chest pain and reduces the risk of heart attack.

AI platform identifies acute neurological illnesses faster than human diagnosis

An artificial intelligence platform designed to identify a broad range of acute neurological illnesses, such as stroke, hemorrhage, and hydrocephalus, was shown to identify disease in CT scans in 1.2 seconds, faster than human diagnosis, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in the journal Nature Medicine.

14 Aug 2018

NIH awards $6.5 million to establish multi-institution biomedical technology resource center

The National Institutes of Health have awarded $6.5 million to a consortium that includes the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the University of Washington, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Auckland, New Zealand, to establish the Center for Reproducible Biomedical Modeling.

13 Aug 2018

RNA and DNA sequencing platform matches broader swath of drugs to late-stage cancer patients

A comprehensive RNA and DNA sequencing platform benefits late-stage and drug-resistant multiple myeloma patients by determining which drugs would work best for them, according to results from a clinical trial published in JCO Precision Oncology in August.

9 Aug 2018

World's major heart surgery organizations call for effective strategies to treat rheumatic heart disease

Experts from the world's major heart surgery organizations-including The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery-are calling for urgent action to develop and implement effective strategies for treating rheumatic heart disease, which affects 33 million people and kills 320,000 annually.

3 Aug 2018

New drug cocktails make targeted cancer therapies more efficient with less side effects

Mount Sinai researchers have discovered that certain drug cocktails help targeted therapies attack cancer more efficiently while lessening common side effects, according to a study published today in Cancer Research.

1 Aug 2018

Simplified, standardized approaches may help open heart surgery patients live longer

Patients who undergo coronary artery bypass grafting; the most common heart surgery performed - may live longer and experience fewer complications when under the care of a highly focused surgical team that uses simplified and standardized approaches, according to research published today in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

26 Jul 2018

The Mount Sinai Hospital receives accreditation as geriatric emergency department

The Department of Emergency Medicine at The Mount Sinai Hospital is the first in New York State to be accredited as a geriatric emergency department by the American College of Emergency Physicians. Eight emergency departments in the nation received this accreditation, which is part of a nationwide effort to improve and standardize emergency care for elderly patients.

20 Jul 2018

Frailty associated with poor survival rates in young heart patients

Traditionally, frailty is thought to be a syndrome of the elderly - one which comes as a natural and inevitable side-effect of aging, gradually transforming strong, healthy bodies into weaker, more delicate frames over time.

20 Jul 2018

Mount Sinai study identifies potential new treatment target for aggressive bladder cancer

A potential new target for treatment has been identified in an aggressive form of bladder cancer, Mount Sinai researchers report.

4 Jul 2018

Smidt Heart Institute patient is first in the United States to receive new device to fix leaky heart valve

A Smidt Heart Institute patient is the first in the country to receive a new device to fix a leaky heart valve.

4 Jul 2018

Computational biological models help uncover wealth of knowledge about atherosclerosis

Researchers have identified a new gene-activation pathway caused by lipids associated with coronary artery disease, a finding that could help identify new directions in research and drug development. The study was published in June in Nature Communications.

29 Jun 2018

Mount Sinai study could help doctors to better understand and manage diseases affecting the larynx

In a first-of-its-kind study, Mount Sinai researchers have used sensory mapping to discover that the posterior part of the larynx (closest to the swallowing tract) is the main area of the voice box to protect the airway from potentially dangerous swallowed or inhaled substances.

29 Jun 2018

Scientists win NIH grant to study discrete subaortic stenosis

Scientists at Rice University, Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine have won a prestigious National Institutes of Health grant to study the dynamic processes and cellular players linked to discrete subaortic stenosis, a congenital heart disease.

27 Jun 2018

Cardiac specialists review benefits of 'prehabilitation' before heart surgery for older, frail patients

High risk, frail heart patients might derive benefits from "prehabilitation," a strategy designed to enhance the recovery process after heart surgery by maintaining or improving the patient's overall physical and mental status before surgery, according to a group of eminent cardiac specialists writing in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

27 Jun 2018

Administering nitric oxide gas after heart surgery may decrease risk of kidney problems

Administration of nitric oxide gas during and for 24 hours following heart surgery decreased the risk of patients developing acute and chronic kidney problems, a randomized, controlled trial conducted in China found.

22 Jun 2018

Researchers report unusually high levels of herpesvirus in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease

Two strains of human herpesvirus - human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) - are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease at levels up to twice as high as in those without Alzheimer's, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report.

21 Jun 2018

Study finds IV acetaminophen to be no more effective than oral counterpart for colectomy patients

Intravenous acetaminophen is no more effective than oral acetaminophen for patients undergoing colorectal procedures, Mount Sinai researchers report in a first-of-its-kind study.

19 Jun 2018

Study finds elevated risk of congenital defects in lithium-exposed infants

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found an elevated risk of major congenital malformations in fetuses after first-trimester exposure to lithium, in the largest study ever to examine the risk of birth defects in lithium-exposed babies.

19 Jun 2018

Specific impairments within six large-scale brain networks linked to drug addiction behaviors

Specific impairments within six large-scale brain networks during drug cue exposure, decision-making, inhibitory control, and social-emotional processing are associated with drug addiction behaviors, according to a systematic review of more than 100 published neuroimaging studies by experts at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published Wednesday, June 6 in the journal Neuron.

7 Jun 2018

Novel microscope technology offers images of the brain with 4K resolution and 3D visualization

The Department of Neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is one of the first hospitals in the country to use the ZEISS KINEVO 900 microscope, a new surgeon-driven, robotic visualization system that merges the functionality of a surgical microscope with 4K resolution and 3D visualization along with specialized robotic control.

1 Jun 2018