Heart Care Services
MRI Compatible Pacemakers
Woodland Heights Medical Center utilizes the world's smallest, longest-lasting wireless magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible pacemaker, allowing wearers the potential to undergo an MRI without complications or dangers with the device. The completely wireless device enhances patient comfort and includes customized alerts for patient safety and lasts for 10 years.
The MRI pacemaker also offers wireless remote monitoring, providing physicians secure access to their patients' diagnostic data and daily device measurements and reducing the need for in-office visits. Remote monitoring of cardiac patients has become a more common practice over the past decade, and studies have continued to prove its positive impact on patient outcomes and the reduction of health care costs.
Cryoablation
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other cardiac related complications. With an estimated 2.7 million Americans living with this condition, AFib is the most common arrhythmia affecting our population. Woodland Heights Medical Center uses cryoablation treatment along with 3D mapping to decrease procedure time and the radiation dosage to aid in the management of AFib.
OCT/FFR Technology
Woodland Heights Medical Center uses a system that combines optical coherence tomography and fractional flow reserve technologies on one platform. The system evaluates the severity of blood flow blockages in the coronary arteries and allows physicians to visualize and measure important vessel characteristics otherwise not visible or difficult to assess with older imaging technologies.
Combined, the two technologies optimize intervention by assisting physicians in identifying culprit lesions responsible for coronary narrowings responsible for significantly obstructing the flow of blood to a patient's heart muscle. These technologies also provide physicians with precise measurements of lesion dimensions, as well as vessel size and structure.
Laser Revascularization
If you have advanced heart disease, suffer from chest pain and have undergone treatments including coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG), angioplasty and drug therapy (medical management), you may be a candidate for transmyocardial laser revascularization (TMR).
Also referred to as CO2 laser revascularization, Woodland Heights Medical Center is the first hospital in the East Texas area to offer this procedure. During the CO2 laser revascularization procedure, a laser is used to create conduits or channels in the heart muscle. It is a new treatment that assists in providing blood to the areas of the heart that is not amenable to direct revascularization.
For patients with coronary artery disease, CO2 laser revascularization has been shown to reduce pain from angina. The CO2 heart laser system was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a safe and effective device for the treatment of patients with chest pain due to advanced cardiovascular disease.