Franklin “Del” Sandberg avoided open heart surgery with an advanced procedure called MitraClip^®, which treated his mitral regurgitation (MR). A year later, he had another high-tech procedure called Watchman^TM and was able to stop taking blood-thinning medication for his atrial fibrillation (AFib).

Leon Lasota was considered too high risk for open heart surgery and instead had a minimally invasive procedure called transcatheter catheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to treat his severe aortic stenosis.

Rev. John O’Malley became the first patient at Elmhurst Hospital to receive a newly FDA-approved type of pacemaker called the Micra^TM transcatheter pacing system (TPS).

Bill Youngs avoided open heart surgery for a 100 percent blocked coronary artery with a new minimally invasive technique to treat chronic total occlusion (CTO).

These patients benefited from the cardiac care innovations offered at Edward-Elmhurst Health’s Cardiac Innovations and Structural Heart Center^®.

The Center offers comprehensive cardiovascular care — appointments, diagnosis, testing and consultations — by an expert cardiac team in a single, convenient location. Our cardiac team evaluates patients, determines next steps and puts a plan in place all in the same day so there’s no waiting and worrying.

The team uses complex, minimally invasive heart procedures to give patients who have often been told that they are too high-risk for traditional surgery a new lease on life. You won’t find lifesaving procedures like these in most community hospitals.

“We have a team providing the latest treatments that are the last hope for many heart patients,” says Mark Goodwin, MD, an interventional cardiologist and system medical director of the Cardiac Innovations & Structural Heart Center.

Some of the cardiac innovations offered at the Center include:

• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR): A minimally invasive surgical procedure for patients who suffer from severe aortic stenosis but are deemed too high-risk for traditional open-heart surgery, TAVR replaces the diseased aortic valve. Edward Hospital was one of the first community hospitals in the Chicago area to perform TAVR.  Edward-Elmhurst Health is No. 1 in the state for number of TAVR procedures performed.* Our clinical trials also feature transcaval TAVR for patients with small pelvic arteries or who are considered too high-risk for the traditional TAVR procedure. Because not all hearts or heart valves are exactly the same, our new LOTUS Edge™ Valve System allows physicians to precisely place the new valve into an optimal position in the heart and adjust it for a custom fit in those patients who have complex structural challenges. We were the first hospital in the Chicago area to use this new device.
• WATCHMAN^TM: A first-of-its-kind implant alternative to treat AFib and reduce stroke risk without the need for medication. Edward Hospital is the first community hospital in Illinois to offer the WATCHMAN device. Edward-Elmhurst Health is ranked No. 1 in the state for the number of WATCHMAN procedures performed, among non-academic providers.*
• MitraClip^®: A minimally invasive procedure for patients with degenerative MR who are too sick for open-heart surgery. Edward Hospital is the first community hospital in the Chicago area to treat severe MR patients with the device, and we are one of only six hospitals in Illinois to offer MitraClip. Edward-Elmhurst is ranked No. 1 in Illinois for MitraClip procedures performed among non-academic providers.*
• Chronic total occlusion (CTO): We treat CTOs, or complete blockages, with a minimally invasive procedure that restores blood flow to the heart without open-heart surgery. Edward Hospital is a global training site for CTO treatment. We are also the only community hospital in the world to participate in an international conference that features a live streaming of our CTO procedure.
• CardioMEMS^TM: For heart failure patients, a miniaturized, wireless monitoring sensor is implanted during a minimally invasive procedure. It directly measures pulmonary artery pressure, allowing patients to quickly and conveniently transmit data from their homes to their healthcare providers. Edward Hospital is one of the first hospitals in the Chicago area to implant the CardioMEMS™ device and was active in the clinical trial that lead to the device’s approval.
• Shockwave: For patients with peripheral artery disease, a procedure similar to the technology used to break up kidney stones. Shockwave uses pulses of energy to break up calcified plaque in arteries of the legs, which improves circulation and reduces pain for patients with this condition. Edward Hospital was the first hospital in Illinois to use Shockwave and is the only site in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, and one of only 10 sites in the U.S., to use the procedure.
• Micra^TM Transcatheter Pacing System: A leadless pacemaker used to treat slow or irregular heart rhythm. Edward-Elmhurst Health is the first in Illinois and second in the Midwest for the number of Micra devices implanted. The device allows the patient to return more quickly to normal activities than a traditional pacemaker implant.
• Impella: The world’s smallest heart pump at 5 mm in diameter (about 1/5 in.), this state-of-the-art, lifesaving device can be inserted through a small hole in the leg to help the heart pump blood during a procedure.
• IN.PACT:  A breakthrough approach in the treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in the upper leg. The IN.PACT drug-coated balloon delivers a drug to the artery walls to help prevent the artery from narrowing again. Edward Hospital is among the first hospitals in the country to offer this procedure, and was a site for an IN.PACT clinical trial.
• Topera 3D Mapping System: For patients with AFib, this procedure uses 3D mapping to allow doctors to pinpoint the exact sources of the arrhythmia, and quickly and precisely ablate the spots in the heart. Elmhurst Hospital treated the first patient in Illinois with this technology.
• Medtronic Reveal LINQ monitor: For patients with cardiac arrhythmias, the smallest available wireless insertable cardiac monitor, allows doctors to track a patient’s irregular heartbeat for up to three years while remaining virtually undetectable under the skin. Elmhurst Hospital was the first hospital in the western suburbs to implant the LINQ monitor.
• Fractional flow reserve with coronary CT angiography (FFRct): This technology uses noninvasive coronary CT angiography and artificial intelligence to create a personalized 3D model of the patient’s arteries to assess the impact of blockages on blood flow.

* IHA, COMPdata 2018

You can depend on the Cardiac Innovations & Structural Heart Center^® team at the Heart Hospital of Edward-Elmhurst Health to effectively treat your heart condition with a number of minimally invasive options.

For us, this is personal. Learn more about what makes our heart program so special.

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Learn more from Healthy Driven Chicago:

 Your heart's rhythm: Treatments to stay on beat

Five cardiac risk factors you should know