Cardiosurgery in Israel

Doctors usually treat the initial stages of cardiac diseases with conservative methods. However, sooner or later, a moment may come when a significant and sustainable result can be achieved only with the help of surgery. The high quality and timely cardiac surgery can give a person tens of years of active life. You can go to Israel to treat severe cardiac diseases. This country has talented surgeons, uses state-of-the-art equipment and performs even the most complex heart surgery with affordable cost of treatment.

What diseases can be treated in Israel?

Foreign tourists often visit Israel to undergo a general medical examination, to use services in the field of oncology, neurology and neurosurgery, bariatric surgery. Many patients visit Israeli medical centers for the treatment of cardiac diseases. In Israel, many heart diseases can be treated with minimally invasive procedures or surgical interventions.

Here are the main cardiac pathologies foreign patients with which often seek medical help from Cardiac Surgery Clinics in Israel:

• Aortic aneurysm
• Heart valve stenosis or insufficiency
• Congenital heart defects in children
• Severe heart arrhythmias
• Coronary artery disease
• Heart failure

Patients who do not have the precise diagnosis yet often come to the country as well. They undergo a general medical examination, which is followed by treatment. Here are the commonly used surgical methods for the treatment of cardiac pathologies in Israel.

Balloon angioplasty and coronary artery stenting. It allows getting rid of the symptoms of coronary heart disease due to the expansion of the coronary arteries and improved blood flow to the myocardium.

Coronary artery bypass grafting. Doctors form several bypasses to normalize the blood supply to the myocardium. A bypass is a vascular prosthesis through which blood flows bypassing the narrowed sections of the coronary arteries. This is a more traumatizing, but also more effective surgery for the treatment of coronary heart disease.

Heart valve prosthetic and plastic repair. With age, a person's mitral and aortic valves are more often damaged, while the tricuspid valve is affected less often. Their stenosis or insufficiency develops. Many of these cardiac pathologies are treated in Israel using minimally invasive methods.

Correction of congenital heart defects. To eliminate a heart defect in a child, a minimally invasive procedure can sometimes be required, e.g. foramen ovale closure with an occluder through a small incision in the leg. In some cases complex and combined heart defects are corrected during open heart surgery using a cardiopulmonary bypass.

Assuta Hospital

The medical hospital offers a general medical examination, performs heart valve replacement surgery and coronary artery bypass grafting. The Department of Cardiac Catheterization performs more than 5 thousand cardiac catheterization procedures every year in order to diagnose and treat cardiac diseases. With access through blood vessels, doctors perform atrial ablation for atrial fibrillation, balloon angioplasty and coronary stenting for coronary heart disease.

The hospital provides innovative capsule stimulator implantation (MICRA) procedures that replace a conventional pacemaker. It does not require placing an additional block under the skin, from which wires go to the heart. The technology is used only in patients with the need for a single-chamber stimulator.

Sheba Medical Center

The medical complex includes the Leviev Heart Center. It has been operating since 2007. The center has the Departments of Cardiology, Cardiac Resuscitation, Invasive, Non-Invasive Cardiology, Electrophysiology, Nuclear Cardiology, Catheterization Laboratory, Cardiac Rehabilitation, Cardiothoracic Surgery. The center has organized the Heart Failure Institute, doctors from which have achieved tremendous success in treating this disease.

The medical clinic uses not only standard methods of treatment of cardiac diseases, but also has its own developments and unique techniques. The Leviev Center includes the Tamman Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Neufeld Cardiac Research Institute. The researchers have achieved particular success in regenerative medicine: the center uses experimental treatment methods aimed at restoring the heart muscle.

University Hospital Hadassah

The Medical Hospital Hadassah works closely with American cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. Since 2009, the hospital database has been integrated into the National Database of the American Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery (STS). This means accurate statistics and public access to the results of cardiac surgery in Israel, including its effectiveness, mortality rate, frequency of complications, etc.

The Hadassah Cardiac Surgery Center uses the very latest Nexus endovascular stenting system. In 2018, the aortic aneurysm surgery was performed using the Nexus Stent Graft System for the first time. This unique system allows the surgeons eliminating the pathology using minimally invasive techniques, avoiding the need for open heart surgery.

Here are other achievements of the Hadassah Medical Center:

• The only medical hospital in Israel that performs intrauterine catheterization of the fetal heart
• The surgery to correct congenital heart defects in premature babies with any weight
• The use of the innovative Azurion catheterization system, which reduces radiation exposure by 50-80%, and at the same time allows getting higher quality images
• The use of the PUREWAV technology for ultrasound imaging of the heart in overweight people
• The mortality rate from cardiac surgery in patients with high surgical risks at the Hadassah Hospital is 2-3 times lower than in the worldwide average indicators 
• The hospital performed a combined heart and kidney transplant for the first time in the world 
• The use of a new method of treating atrial fibrillation using the Watchman occluder – it blocks the entry of blood clots from the left atrium into the vessels and prevents a stroke

Sourasky Medical Center

The Sammy Ofer Heart Center is part of the Sourasky Medical Center. It employs world-class specialists who perform minimally invasive and open heart surgery, implant pacemakers and defibrillators, replace and reconstruct heart valves.

The hospital performs coronary artery bypass grafting on a beating heart. This is a less traumatizing operation, after which a patient recovers faster. Since the cardiopulmonary bypass is not used, the health risks associated with its use are reduced.

The Sourasky Medical Center uses a minimally invasive TAVI aortic valve replacement technique. It involves the introduction of a new valve through the blood vessels, without incisions in the chest. The technique provides rapid rehabilitation and can be performed even in patients with high surgical risks.

Rambam Health Care Campus

The Department of Cardiac Surgery at the Rambam Medical Center is one of the largest in Israel. It performs 650 open heart surgical interventions every year, which is the third indicator in the country. The department performs minimally invasive and hybrid operations, use robot-assisted surgery.  

The Rambam Hospital uses its own unique developments in the field of cardiac surgery. These include:

• Protection of the brain from hypoxic injury during heart surgery using a cardiopulmonary bypass
• A new breathing tube that reduces the risk of throat injury and lung infection
• Coronary artery bypass grafting using a robot surgeon

Rabin Medical Center

The hospital performs more than 800 coronary artery bypass grafting procedures and heart valve prosthetics every year. The medical facility includes the Schneider Children's Medical Center. It annually performs more than 400 heart operations in children, this is mainly surgery to correct congenital heart defects.

The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery includes several departments specializing in:

• Aortic surgery
• Minimally invasive cardiac surgery
• Surgical treatment of heart arrhythmia
• Follow-up after cardiac surgery
• Surgical treatment of heart failure and heart transplantation

Benefits of surgery in Israel

Cardiothoracic surgery is one of the most popular destinations of medical tourism. The heart surgery is complex and often unsafe. Different Cardiothoracic Centers show different statistics on the success of surgical treatment of cardiac pathologies, mortality rate of patients and the development of complications.

For any patient, it is important to undergo successful surgery without significant health risks. For the sake of this, a person is ready to leave the borders of his native country and spend some time abroad. Israel is among the countries with a high level of medicine. Therefore, the Cardiothoracic Centers of leading clinics in Israel do not have any shortage of patients. The main benefits of surgical treatment of cardiac diseases in Israel include:

• Well-equipped Centers for Cardiothoracic Surgery.
• Experienced surgeons who are among the best doctors in the world in the field of cardiac surgery.
• Preference is given to minimally invasive surgery – although it is technically more complex, patients recover more quickly after such surgery.
• Low mortality rate. The surgeons conduct the general medical examination and assess the risks of surgery. They choose the optimal method of treatment of cardiac pathology.
• Israeli surgeons can often treat a cardiac disease with a minimally invasive method, while in other clinics the patient would have to undergo the open heart surgery.
• Most of the operations on coronary vessels are performed on the beating heart, which reduces the risk of complications.
• With all the benefits of Israeli medicine, the cost of treatment in this country is lower than in Europe or the United States.

Where to seek help from?

To undergo treatment in Israel, please, use the Booking Health services. Our portal provides general information about hospitals, doctors, medical procedures and operations, prices. You can find out the cost of treatment in different Israeli Cardiac Surgery Clinics and compare the prices. As a result, you get the opportunity to book treatment in Israel at the best price for yourself.

The medical tourism company Booking Health will arrange your treatment in Israel. We offer the following services and benefits:

• Selection of the Surgery Hospital in Israel that specializes in the treatment of cardiac diseases
• Reduced waiting time for treatment in Israel
• Reduced cost of treatment in Israel – the price is reduced due to avoiding additional price coefficients for foreign patients
• Direct communication with the cardiac surgeon
• Preparation for surgery in Israel without the need to repeat previous diagnostic tests
• Buying and forwarding medicines
• Communication with the hospital after the completion of the medical program
• Organization of additional diagnostics, treatment or rehabilitation

Booking Health specialists provide high-quality services. We will book a hotel and airline tickets for you, meet you at the airport and take you to the hospital by car.