What is it? Our surgeons make an incision over your sternum. This is called a sternotomy. They will likely need to spread open your sternum so they can operate on your heart.

Why would you need it? Though many conditions can now be treated with minimally invasive options, some conditions do require open-heart surgery. The most common operation is coronary artery bypass surgery.

Coronary artery bypass surgery is a type of open heart surgery that restores blood flow to the heart. Sometimes an artery that supplies your heart is severely diseased or blocked. If blood can’t flow through the artery, you may have chest pain or shortness of breath. Untreated, this could be life-threatening.

How CABG works: We make an incision in your chest and spread open your rib cage. We take a healthy vein or artery from your leg, arm or chest. This is called a graft. We use the healthy graft to connect blood vessels near the blocked or diseased area. This is called a bypass. Think of it as a new highway that lets your blood detour around the blocked artery.

Safety procedures: During the surgery, our team will use state-of-the-art technology to keep you safe. You may need a heart-lung bypass pump that will breathe and pump blood for you during the surgery. In some cases, our surgical team will operate while your heart is still beating. This is called off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery (OPCAB).

Other open heart surgery techniques include:

Heart pump implants: For severe heart failure, we may implant a small pump in your chest. When your heart muscle weakens, these devices can pump blood and oxygen through your body. You may need one while you wait for a heart transplant. Our surgeons have successfully implanted more than 200 heart pumps.

Heart transplant: A heart transplant is a major surgery for severe heart failure. We will replace your damaged heart with a healthy heart from a donor. OHSU has the largest heart transplant program in the region. Our team has completed more than 800 transplants, giving us uncommon expertise. We also offer a full range of resources to help you prepare and recover. Our recovery services include physical therapy, heart-healthy nutrition plans and palliative care.

What is it? This minimally invasive procedure uses a catheter (thin tube) inserted through a small incision in your leg, groin or abdomen. Our surgeons thread the catheter through your blood vessels to reach your heart. This lets us to repair or replace parts of your heart without needing to make large incisions. Because this type of surgery is minimally invasive, you can expect to recover faster and have fewer complications.

Why would you need it? Transcatheter surgery can be used to treat heart valve disease and aortic aneurysm. OHSU is the only medical center in Oregon that can replace any of the heart’s valves without the need for a chest incision.

Types of transcatheter surgery include:

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR): TAVR is a way to replace the aortic valve without open-heart surgery. OHSU was the first medical center on the West Coast to use this innovative approach. A new valve is placed inside your natural aortic valve, where it expands and pushes the faulty valve aside. After your surgery, our team will continue to monitor your heart through follow-up exams that include X-rays and blood tests.

Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) or thoracic endovascular aneurysm repair (TEVAR): Our team uses a catheter to place a stent graft (a flexible wire frame sewn on a specially woven fabric tube) inside the weak part of your aorta. This reduces pressure and lowers the risk that an aneurysm will burst. We also operate on aneurysms that have already burst. Our doctors can often do EVAR without general anesthesia. This means we use local anesthetic to numb the area of the procedure, so you do not feel pain or discomfort. You also get medication to help you relax.

What is it? Our surgeons always make the smallest incision possible to successfully complete your surgery. Often they can use alternatives to open-heart surgery that are less invasive but still allow our team to reach your heart. This means less pain after surgery and a quicker recovery.

• Mini thorcotomy: We make a small incision in your chest between your ribs.
• Partial sternotomy: We make a smaller incision above your sternum than we would for open-heart surgery.

Why would you need it? We may use these approaches to treat heart valve disease. They can also be used to implant a device to treat heart failure. These mechanical devices regulate your heart rhythm or monitor how your heart is working.