The Heart & Vascular Institute Aortic Center is Hartford HealthCare’s acknowledgement that there’s no simple solution to treating complex conditions related to aortic disease.
A life-or-death medical emergency, such as a ruptured aorta (known as a dissection), can require immediate care from different types of medical specialists. That’s why two Heart & Vascular Institute departments, vascular surgery and cardiac surgery, combined with advanced imaging specialists to form the Aortic Center. It has become a model of efficient, and technically proficient, medical care while also developing nationally recognized clinical research capabilities.
The HVI difference
The Aortic Center at Hartford Hospital was among 40 sites nationwide – and the only one in Connecticut – chosen for an ongoing FDA-approved trial starting in 2016 that evaluates a new way to treat a life-threatening thoracic aortic aneurysm using a device inserted through the femoral artery via a small incision in the groin. The traditional treatment requires at least a moderate-size incision in the chest with the patient under general anesthesia. The method under study requires only a local anesthesia and results in much quicker recover times. (The first patient who underwent this procedure at Hartford Hospital was released within 48 hours.)
“This is not traditional open-heart surgery,” says Dr. Thomas Divinagracia, chief of vascular surgery. “We’re able to treat older, sicker patients because physiologically, they’re much less stressful than traditional, more invasive procedures.”
Here are some of the conditions we treat:
