Southern Ohio Medical Center (SOMC) has achieved yet another milestone in its heart and vascular services. Last week doctors performed what they believe to be the first “hybrid” heart procedure in the state of Ohio.

“I believe this is the first hybrid procedure in the state of Ohio done with total coronary artery bypass, surgical conduit and with a cardiac stent, done in the cath lab,” Dr. Henry Childers said.

In a coronary bypass procedure, an artery that feeds oxygen rich blood to the heart tissue is restricted or blocked and the blood flow must be re-routed. A piece of vein or artery from another part of the body is used to bypass the blockage.

In this procedure, Dr. Childers used a piece of an artery to the upper chest (the left internal mammary artery) for the bypass. This was accomplished with an incision much smaller than conventional surgery.

During the same surgery, another restricted vessel was opened to allow better blood flow by using a balloon and placement of a stent, which is a tube permanently positioned in the vessel.

Because the two procedures are normally conducted separately, this operation is known as a “hybrid” procedure.

“True hybrids are done if you have a hybrid room. With that (hybrid room) you have a certain type of room that has full state-of-the-art cardiac surgical capability.” At the same time the room is equipped with cardiac cath lab capabilities needed for stent placement.

There are several different procedures that could be done with a dedicated hybrid room like the one at SOMC, which was added as a part of the expansion and renovations SOMC has done recently in the heart and vascular services and the surgery department.

“What we did has not been done in very many places in the country. We did a minimally invasive left internal mammary artery to the left interior descending artery followed by the cath lab doing a stent to another affected vessel, a balloon angioplasty to another affected vessel and then going up and showing the left internal mammary artery to the left interior descending graft. We then put dye into that to see it was open and working beautifully,” Childers said.

He said the hybrid procedure is better for the patient for a number of reasons. There is one trip to the operating room, and work can be verified to make sure it is complete.

“This is not the standard of care because no one has this kind of technology. This will be what we are doing in the future,” he said. “We (SOMC) are at the very edge of this cutting edge technology, and are looking for ways to continue going. There is no other place in this region which is considering this right now.”