Heart Diseases and Conditions We Treat With Surgery

If you have heart disease, you can often manage it with healthy lifestyle habits and medications from your primary care provider or cardiologist. However, if your condition gets worse and can no longer be managed by lifestyle modifications or medications, consider Henry Ford Heart & Vascular. We specialize in the latest surgical techniques to reduce your risk of a cardiac event, such as a heart attack.

Care for all types of heart disease

We offer a full spectrum of cardiothoracic surgery options, from implantable devices and repair procedures to heart transplants. Our team provides comprehensive diagnosis and evaluation to determine the best treatment for you. When appropriate, our cardiothoracic surgeons use minimally invasive approaches, which use smaller incisions for less pain and a faster recovery.

Our heart surgery team is one of the few in Michigan with expertise in every type of heart surgery. We can care for people with all types and stages of heart disease, even the most complex.

Aortic diseases and disorders

Your heart supplies oxygen-rich blood to your body through your largest artery — your aorta. Trauma, high blood pressure and many other conditions can create weakened areas, known as aneurysms, in the aorta’s thick walls.

Our heart surgeons have expertise in sophisticated procedures to repair aortic conditions, which can become life-threatening, including:

• Aortic aneurysm (a bulge that forms in a weakened area of the aorta)
• Aortic dissection (a tear in the aorta)

Arrhythmias (heart rhythm disorders)

Arrhythmias are conditions that affect the heart’s electrical system, which controls heart rate and rhythm. There are many types of arrhythmias. They can cause the heart to beat too fast, too slowly or irregularly.

Our heart surgeons perform specialized operations, such as the Maze procedure, to restore a regular heartbeat in people with severe arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation.

Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy is a group of diseases that affect the heart muscle, preventing it from contracting and relaxing properly as it pumps blood. Our heart surgeons are skilled in procedures to correct thickened, stiff or abnormal heart muscle tissue that can develop with cardiomyopathy.