Cardiologists on the medical staff at Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano are now using the first and only leadless pacemaker in the United States as a treatment option for patients with bradycardia. The Micra™ transcatheter pacing system (TPS) is about the size of a multivitamin, making it 93 percent smaller than traditional devices and the world’s smallest pacemaker.
The use of robotic technology has rapidly expanded in cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery and interventional cardiology over the last several years. As one of the state’s busiest robotic cardiothoracic surgery programs, Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano continues to invest in this growing field in order to provide even more minimally invasive options for patients.
The combined procedure is part of the hospital’s ongoing efforts to offer surgical options for patients with mitral annular calcification.
Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano recently completed the first successful combined procedure in Texas that included surgical implantation of transcatheter valve in native mitral annular calcification (SITRAL) and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) using robotic technology.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia treated in clinical practice. Lifetime risk of AF is estimated to be 24% in elderly patients.1–3 Stroke is the most devastating complication of AF, with AF patients experiencing a fivefold higher risk of stroke and a twofold increased risk of all-cause mortality.4 Taking all patients into consideration, the annual stroke risk is 5%, but can be as high as 15% depending on many common clinical factors.5
