Innovative Device Helps Open-Heart Surgery Recovery

We know our bodies and when an important organ, like our heart feels off, we get worried. That was the case for Jim Spangle of New Richmond, Indiana.

In 2018, Jim first experienced symptoms he knew weren’t normal, a feeling like heartburn and a strong pressure in his jaw, signs of a possible heart attack.

After Jim saw a cardiologist at Franciscan Physician Network Indiana Heart Physicians in Crawfordsville and was sent the same week to the Franciscan Health Heart Center in Indianapolis for a cardiac catheterization.

What Is A Cardiac Catheterization?

According to the American Heart Association, a cardiac catheterization (cardiac cath or heart cath) is a procedure to examine how well your heart is working. A thin, hollow tube called a catheter is inserted into a large blood vessel that leads to your heart.

A cardiac catheterization provides information on how well your heart works, identifies problems and allows for procedures to open blocked arteries.

During a cardiac cath your doctor may:

• Take X-rays using contrast dye that looks for narrowed or blocked coronary arteries.
• Look for defects in the valves or chambers of your heart.
• Open narrowed or blocked segments of a coronary artery.
• Check the pressure and oxygen content in the four chambers of your heart.
• Evaluate the ability of the pumping chambers to contract.
• Remove a small piece of heart tissue to examine under a microscope (biopsy).

During his cardiac cath, Jim’s cardiologist found blockages and placed stents in two partially blocked arteries, one of them the left anterior descending artery.

Listening To Your Body

A year after Jim’s cardiac cath, he felt strangely out of breath and the same pressure in his chest and jaw as before. Again, he went to Indiana Heart Physicians where Louis Janeira, MD, ordered a stress test. Based on the results, Dr. Janeira sent Jim again to the Heart Center for more testing.

It turned out Jim was right to listen to his body. That left anterior descending artery was now 90 percent blocked.

“This artery, also known as the LAD, is commonly called ‘the widow maker,’” Dr. Janeira said. “When it becomes fully blocked, patients often die due to cardiac arrest. Other arteries may compensate for the LAD blockage, but they don’t always compensate fully.”

The following week, Jim had double-bypass open-heart surgery at Franciscan Health.

Double-Bypass Open-Heart Surgery

Open-heart surgery treats blocked heart arteries by taking arteries or veins from other parts of your body — called grafts — and using them to reroute the blood around the clogged artery to supply blood flow to your heart muscle.

While Jim’s surgery was routine, including the splitting of the sternum bone to reach the heart, there was one significant difference. Cardiothoracic surgeon Andrew Barksdale, MD, with Cardiac Surgery Associates, used a device called the SternaLock® to secure the sternum back in place.

SternaLock®

The SternaLock® Blu System applies the proven principles of locking rigid fixation to sternal closure and offers a rigid fixation alternative for mid-line sternotomies as well as a variety of minimally invasive approaches including the mini-sternotomy and mini-thoracotomy.

“It allows the sternum to fuse together much more quickly than with the traditional surgical wires, resulting in less pain and less discomfort for the patient,” Dr. Barksdale said.

The SternaLock® plates allow patients to use their arms immediately after surgery and resume normal activities much sooner.

“This means most patients can go directly home and avoid a stay in an inpatient rehab facility,” Dr. Barksdale said.

Recovery Was Ahead Of Schedule

Jim credits this device for his quick recovery.

“I talked to patients who had the wires placed, and they were still having pain weeks after I did,” he said.

Jim completed his cardiac rehabilitation sessions in Crawfordsville, and ahead of schedule, thanks to his prior workout routine. After he completed 22 of 36 sessions, “they let me leave the nest,” he joked.

Three months after his surgery, Jim was back to his normal routine, caring for his animals and working at his bandsaw to create benches and side tables for upcoming craft shows.