The average age of those operated for heart goes from 55 to 75 years in two decades, thanks to advances in surgery cardiac.
-el Dr. Gallo spoke about the evolution of cardiac surgery in recent years and how they have benefited advances to patient
Donostia-San Sebastián, December of 2011. Dr. Ignacio Gallo, cardiovascular surgeon and President of PoliclÃnica Gipuzkoa, put the final touch to the cycle of conferences of the classroom of health organized PoliclÃnica Gipuzkoa with a Conference on advances in heart surgery last Thursday, December 1 at the Kutxa AndÃa Street room, in San Sebastian.
About 500 people are operated every year at PoliclÃnica Gipuzkoa heart (12,000, since 1988), only hospital that offers this service in Gipuzkoa, concluded by Osakidetza. In the past 25 years advances in cardiac surgery have been spectacular, both in simplification of processes and the improvement of materials, medical care and research in regeneration myocardial amongst others.
Dr. Ignacio Gallo is currently immersed in various research projects developed in his experimental laboratory of Vitoria working with growth factors and stem cells in order to accelerate the regeneration of cardiac tissue and breast bone to achieve a faster recovery and less risk in those operated heart. The Rooster doctor moves his main findings will be released in 2012-2013.
Is that research and advances in cardiac surgery have been always aimed at minimizing the risks in the interventions and the postoperative. Improvements have been substantial in the past two decades in many respects. The substantial increase in the average age of the patients operated for heart is a very significant fact, because the risk involved in an elderly patient is minimized with the advances in cardiac surgery. In 1987 is operated to patients with an average of 55 years of age and currently this average amounts to those 75 years. This leap is the result of the efforts made by many researchers in various fields of the cardiac surgery. These advances, among surgical processes, both technical and operational level, simplifying what prevents both at the time of surgery and postoperative complications.
Medical care have also been key in minimizing the consequences of the problems in the postoperative period, due to improvements in the intensive care and hospital-acquired attention.
The approach of cardiac surgery population has been another big achievement for patients, have a service that responds to the needs of the population with advanced equipment that cover cutting edge technology, as well as experienced professionalsIt helps to substantially improve the quality of care of those operated for heart, decreasing the complications and avoiding displacement and disadvantages of the family to coordinate work and family life.
Outreach and research
The contribution of the awareness-raising campaigns has also been indisputable. Information is power ”, points out Dr. Gallo and know more cardiovascular disease, better we can address them, both from the point of view of prevention and pharmacological and surgical treatments ”.
Associative movements, in addition to promoting healthy lifestyle habits, are a great support to patients, as they have the opportunity to share your questions and concerns with each other and professionals during the different informational activities are organized.
From associations, the scientific community and institutions is doing important work of prevention which undoubtedly contributes to disseminating healthy consciousness among the population, while there is still much work to do in this field ”, insists the cardiovascular surgeon.
On the other hand, developments in treatments, such as new anticoagulants, are giving a lot of talk about útlimamente and surely will bring important benefits for patients with cardiac pathologies. In addition, the great work being done in innovation and research in the area of ageing. In this regard, stresses that the Basque country is the most aged autonomous community, with almost 20% of the population with over 65 years.
All these developments and progress have managed that currently the cardiac surgery offers more guarantees and better quality of life to a larger group of heart patients. In this line continue and must continue investigations that are currently being developed in this field.
Polyclinic, surgery European reference cardiaca.
Dr. Ignacio Gallo founded together with Dr. José Luis MartÃnez of Ubago PoliclÃnica Gipuzkoa cardiac surgery service in 1987. Since then, the area of the heart in polyclinic has grown exponentially, the Gipuzkoa-based Centre became one of the referring hospitals in this area at European level. In fact, it receives from patients from different points of the State and Europe.
In addition to the service of cardiac surgery, Integral hospital Cardiology unit currently groups the haemodynamic unit, the cardiology service, the unit of arrhythmias and cardiac rehabilitation service. This service has recently been concluded with Osakidetza in order that operated from heart of Gipuzkoa will gain access through public service to the cardiac rehabilitation that allows to reduce mortality after a heart attack by 20%.
Polyclinic is also one of the few hospitals in Spain enabled the introduction of percutaneous valve surgery. It’s a novel surgical intervention that allows the establishment of prosthesis in the aorta through a catheter without need for an incision in the breastbone of the patient. This surgery allows us to offer a life expectancy of those complex patients with high risk for surgery.
