The Valve Disorders Center at Baylor Scott & White Heart and Vascular Hospital – Fort Worth offers streamlined access to experts in valve disease for physicians and their patients. By bringing together a dedicated team from multiple specialties, including cardiothoracic surgeons on the medical staff of Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth, patients with valve disorders get a comprehensive evaluation and access to innovative treatments in one place.
The vascular program at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth recently performed Tarrant County’s first fenestrated abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery, or FEVAR.
In April, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), American Heart Association (AHA) and the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) issued new joint guidelines for managing patients with heart failure. The most striking update to the guidelines is the addition of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors or SGLT2 inhibitors to guideline-directed medical therapy.
In 2021, more than 3,000 patients received a heart transplant in the United States and an additional 3,500 patients were awaiting transplantation. Expansion of the donor pool from a variety of factors has led to an increase in the number of heart transplants today compared to a decade ago. However, acute rejection, including acute cellular and antibody-mediated, continues to be a major source of morbidity and death among heart transplant recipients.
The new allocation system for donor hearts, implemented by the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network in 2018, improves access to donor hearts for critically ill candidates. This means patients are sicker at the time of transplant, which increases the likelihood of end-stage organ failure, especially the kidneys.
