Skip to main content

Hybrid heart procedures are gaining ground

By Philadelphia Inquirer  
   February 18, 2010

For more than a decade, surgeons doing open-heart surgery have competed for patients with interventional cardiologists, who implant stents. And the surgeons have been losing ground, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Since 1997, the number of heart bypasses in Philadelphia and the four Pennsylvania suburban counties has fallen nearly 57%, to 2,602 in 2008, an analysis of hospital billings found. In the same period, the number of procedures that implanted one or more stents rose nearly 24%, reaching 10,611 by 2008. But some doctors say hybrid heart procedures, which can be done on one day or in stages over several weeks, offer the best of both approaches.

Full story

Tagged Under:


Get the latest on healthcare leadership in your inbox.