The past several years brought increased growth to the HeartCenter at Butler Memorial Hospital, and 2007 was no exception.

In October, the HeartCenter at Butler Memorial Hospital added an option to treat vascular disease by performing an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. It joined the ranks of a few hospitals outside big tertiary centers that can offer this less invasive procedure.

An abdominal aortic aneurysm, also called an AAA or a triple A, is a bulging weakened area in the wall of the aorta, the body's largest artery, resulting in abnormal ballooning greater than 50 percent of normal diameter.

This can now be repaired at the HeartCenter with a small incision and using X-ray guidance and specially designed instruments to insert a stent-graft in the aneurysm to repair the weakened vessel.

With this type of procedure, the patient can usually leave the hospital in two or three days as opposed to the more traditional open surgery which had a six day hospital stay and a month's recovery time at home.

"Not all patients with an abdominal aortic aneurysm are candidates for this less invasive surgery, therefore, we use a three dimensional CT scan to map the aneurysm and determine the best course of treatment," said Dr. George Davliakos, the medical director of the HeartCenter.

The hospital bought additional X-ray and operating room technology for this procedure. Since the first case in October, the doctors have done five more procedures without any complications.

"The medical devices for this procedure have improved greatly in the past few years, and this is now a much safer option for patients with this type of cardiovascular disease, especially if they have other co-morbidities that make these surgical risks high for which this option of endovascular repair becomes ideal," said Dr. Samer Azouz, an interventional cardiologist that helped Davliakos perform the first surgery.

According to Davliakos, 1 or 2 percent of the population has an aneurysm, which is often more dominate in males. Risk factors include family history, smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, while risk also increases with age.

The HeartCenter was also recognized in the November issue of Modern Healthcare as one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals for cardiovascular care by Thomson Healthcare. The annual award is based on hospitals' performance in treating congestive heart failure and heart attacks.

This is the third time Butler Memorial has been recognized with this honor.

"Our HeartCenter is just one example of our success in creating a regional health care system prepared to meet the health needs for decades to come as we expand our system to provide even more services to this region," said Ken DeFurio, president and CEO of the health system.

In January 2007 the cardiology department at Butler Memorial was granted accreditation by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories.

In February 2007, employees and physicians who address peripheral vascular disease, both heart and stroke, were featured guests for five days on "Pittsburgh Today Live" on KDKA television.

In April, the Beaver-Butler division of the American Heart Association held a gala during which it honored heart disease survivor Lauren McCune, RN, a long-time nurse at the HeartCenter at BMH.

In June, BMH received the American Heart Association's "Get with the Guidelines" initial performance achievement award for coronary artery disease and stroke. The Stroke Program at BMH went on to achieve silver recognition a few months later.

In July, the HeartCenter opened its third cardiac catheterization lab.

The hospital opened its HeartCenter in July 1998 and since then has been recognized as a 5-star facility for cardiovascular surgery by Health Grades several times and in 2004 received recognition by Health Grades the nation's leading source for health care quality information, for excellence in Patient Safety.

This award, conferred to only 88 U.S. hospitals, placed Butler Memorial in the top two percent in the nation for patient safety.

This article was submitted by Butler Health System.