Department of Cardiac Surgery - University Hospital Halle (Saale)

About the Department of Cardiac Surgery at University Hospital Halle (Saale)

The Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital Halle (Saale) specializes in a full range of cardiac surgical procedures. The medical facility performs operations for ischemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, arrhythmias, heart failure, aortic aneurysms, and aortic dissections. The department's cardiac surgeons have successful experience implanting mechanical circulatory support systems in patients with heart failure: Impella®, ProtekDuo®, and LVAD devices are implanted here. Of particular interest is minimally invasive surgery, which, in addition to an optimal functional outcome, ensures minimal trauma rate, rapid recovery, and the absence of cosmetic defects. In cooperation with interventional cardiologists, the department's surgeons also perform hybrid heart operations, combining catheter-based and classical surgical techniques. The department has the prestigious DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 certificate, given only to the best clinics with exceptional quality of medical services. The department also has the status of a national Heart Failure Center, certified by the German Cardiac Society (DGK) and the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG). The department is headed by Prof. Dr. med. Gábor Szabó.

The medical facility provides qualified medical care for patients with aortic, mitral, and tricuspid valve disease. Heart valve repair and replacement procedures are performed using minimally invasive techniques without opening the sternum. These procedures are characterized by a low trauma rate while providing excellent functional and aesthetic results. When a heart valve defect is detected, the department's cardiac surgeons strive to preserve the patient's own heart valve. Therefore, they prefer repair surgery whenever possible, with valve replacement surgery as the last line of treatment. Functional outcomes after heart valve repair are better than after replacement surgery, and the patient does not need to take anticoagulants. In addition, the incidence of complications and the risk of bleeding and embolism are much lower after heart valve repair than after replacement with a prosthesis.

The department's cardiac surgeons work hand in hand with cardiologists, allowing for a comprehensive diagnosis of the heart and the development of the most effective treatment plan. Together, the specialists perform hybrid procedures that combine catheter-based and classical surgical techniques. The most popular of these are transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) to treat aortic stenosis and the MitraClip procedure to treat mitral regurgitation. TAVI and MitraClip procedures are performed using catheter-based techniques without a single incision in the chest and without connecting the patient to a heart-lung machine.

The department performs coronary artery bypass grafting procedures almost daily to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), a heart pathology caused by impaired blood supply to the myocardium due to stenosis or obstruction of the coronary arteries. The clinical manifestations of CAD are quite diverse, ranging from acute manifestations in the form of myocardial infarction or sudden cardiac death to the development of severe chronic diseases such as angina pectoris, chronic heart failure, and postinfarction cardiosclerosis. In many cases, coronary artery disease progresses slowly, and the patient may have no symptoms for years. Electrocardiography, echocardiography, exercise stress testing, Holter ECG monitoring, and coronary angiography are used to confirm the diagnosis. The first-line treatment is drug therapy. In the early stages of coronary artery disease, balloon angioplasty with stenting of the coronary arteries is also effective. This is an endovascular treatment method. The last-line treatment is coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). It should be noted that this surgery is one of the most popular in cardiac surgery. The essence of the operation is to create a bypass for blood flow around the affected stenotic or occluded segment of the coronary artery. The department's cardiac surgeons perform CABG using classical open surgical techniques (with a sternotomy and the use of a heart-lung machine) and minimally invasive techniques (on a beating heart, surgical approach is provided through minithoracotomy). The optimal surgical technique for each patient is determined individually based on the results of a preliminary diagnosis.

The department's surgical services include the following options:

• Surgery for diseases of the aortic, mitral, and tricuspid heart valves
  • Heart valve repair surgery
  • Heart valve replacement surgery, including innovative TAVI and MitraClip procedures
• Surgery for ischemic heart disease
  • Classical coronary artery bypass grafting with opening of the sternum
  • Minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting
• Surgery for thoracic aortic aneurysm and thoracic aortic dissection
• Surgery for arrhythmia: pacemaker and defibrillator implantation
• Surgery for heart failure: implantation of mechanical circulatory support systems (Impella®, ProtekDuo®, and LVAD)
• Other heart surgical procedures