Dwaine J. Peetz, Jr., M.D., thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon with the Alegent Health Heart and Vascular Institute Find out more about Dr. Peetz

With the traditional coronary bypass procedure, a patient's heart is stopped and blood flow and breathing are regulated by a heart-lung machine.  It's been done this way for decades.  However, Alegent Health surgeons say that using off-pump bypass, or the process of operating on a beating heart, may prevent patients from suffering the cognitive decline that is often associated with traditional bypass surgery.

Primary care physicians are asking surgeons to consider the new procedure for their patients, indicating that they too are seeing positive results from the procedure.

"The heart-lung machine was developed in the fifties and sixties and it was the most revolutionary thing to come about in heart surgery," says Dr. Dwaine J. Peetz, Jr.,  thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon with the Alegent Health Heart and Vascular Institute.  "We were able to control the circulation, stop the heart, and have a live patient when we were through." 

"We had always  thought that the heart had to be in it's normal anotomic position to maintain the contraction and the  blood flow.  But now we can take the heart and put it on a device to support it on the bottom, and we can work on the back with it beating in front of us," adds Dr. Peetz.

Dr. Peetz says that the off-pump procedure is is cheaper, easier on the patient, faster and safer.  But it's not for everyone.  People with valve surgery still need the heart-lung machine, and the machine is always in the operating room during bypass surgery -- just in case.

Heart surgery patient Mardell Anderson says, "It amazes me how with the heart still beating they can accomplish all this delicate surgery that they need to do to keep us going."

This life-saving work, once thought impossible,  is just another day at the office for Dr. Peetz and company.

For more information about services at the Alegent Health Heart and Vascular Institute, call 1-800-ALEGENT (1-800-253-4368), or  visit the Alegent Health Heart and Vascular Institute online.