Complex Coronary Interventions
and Structural Heart Disease
UHealth's interventional and structural heart experts provide the most advanced cardiac catheterization procedures available from the state-of-the-art UHealth Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. Our experts are internationally known leaders, recognized for setting the highest standards of patient care used by physicians around the world, and for having the expertise to treat even the sickest, most high-risk patients. Our interventional experts approach every patient with the highest levels of expertise, judgement and compassionate care.
Why Choose UHealth?
UHealth is a trailblazer in advancing medicine for the treatment of valvular and other structural heart conditions, and for complex coronary interventions. Our experts are physician-scientists conducting research and offering clinical trials that provide tomorrow's treatments to today's patients, and they hold leadership positions in national academies and are contributors to the guidelines that establish the standards of interventional cardiac care nationwide.
We offer the most complex procedures and have the rare expertise to treat even the most challenging patient cases. Our team develops personalized, patient-centered treatment plans to address the unique needs of each individual, and collaborations with cardiac surgery, neurology, pulmonology and other UHealth experts ensure patients receive all the benefits that academic multidisciplinary care can provide.
Most of our coronary procedures are performed via radial access — which provides catheter access from a blood vessel in the wrist rather than from the femoral artery in the groin. Known as Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) this approach has been shown to be safer and have quicker recovery. Patients undergoing elective PCI stent procedures can safely go home on the same day of their procedure after a short observation period.
Our experts offer complex coronary interventions for patients in whom bypass surgery is no longer an option. Many of our patients have reduced heart function/low ejection fraction, and in these cases, we may use left ventricular assist devices such as Impella or TandemHeart to support the intervention. We perform these interventions in the most challenging patients with multiple complicating conditions such as advanced age, chronic kidney insufficiency and lung disease.
Our Experts
YIANNIS S.
CHATZIZISIS,
M.D,, Ph.D., FACC, FAHA, FSCAI, FESC,
Professor and Chief
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Director, Center for Digital Cardiovascular Innovations
PEDRO R. COX,
M.D., MPH, FACC, FSCAI
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Structural Heart Program
CARLOS E.
ALFONSO,
M.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Professor of Medicine
Director, UHealth Advanced Coronary and CTO Interventions
NIKOLAOS SPILIAS,
M.D., FACC
Assistant Professor of Cardiology
Structural and Interventional Cardiologist
Associate Program Director of Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
CLAUDIA A. MARTINEZ,
M.D.
Professor of Clinical Medicine
EDUARDO DE MARCHENA,
M.D., FACC, FACP, FSCAI
Associate Dean for International Medicine
Professor of Medicine and Surgery
Treatments
At UHealth, we offer the spectrum of coronary and structural interventions (with the exception of tricuspid valve interventions) from the state-of-the-art UHealth Catheterization Laboratory, which enables real-time, image-guided procedures offering the highest technical precision and outstanding patient outcomes.
PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTION (PCI)
Most coronary procedures are performed using radial access, which provides catheter access from a blood vessel in the wrist rather than from a femoral artery in the groin. Known as Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, or PCI, this approach has been shown to be safer and have quicker recovery. Patients undergoing elective stent procedures can safely go home on the same day of their procedure after a short observation period.
COMPLEX CORONARY INTERVENTIONS
For those patients in whom bypass surgery is no longer an option, we offer complex and advanced interventions to address chronic total occlusions, left main coronary interventions, bifurcations and calcified arteries. Many of our patients have reduced heart function characterized by low ejection fraction; in these patients we may use left ventricular assist devices such as Impella or TandemHeart to support the intervention. We perform these interventional procedures in the most challenging patients with multiple complicating conditions such as advanced age, chronic kidney disease and lung disease.
STRUCTURAL HEART INTERVENTIONS
Florida's first Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, known as TAVR, was performed at UHealth in 2008, and our experts have subsequently performed thousands of procedures, innovating along the way to further advance interventional cardiac care for even the most complex, high-risk patients. Some of the structural heart interventions we perform include:
- Heart valve interventions including TAVR and MitraClip. Some of the most challenging patients are referred to us from other institutions in the region.
- In collaboration with UHealth neurology, our experts provide comprehensive care to patients who have suffered a stroke and require the closure of a heart defect known as patent foramen ovale, or PFO.
- Many patients who had valve replacements in the past are left with small defects around the artificial valves known as paravalvular leaks. We have a multidisciplinary team to image and treat these defects in a procedure known as “paravalvular leak closure.”
CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE
Interventional heart failure therapy at UHealth is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the interventional cardiology team and other areas within UHealth cardiology. These collaborations are coordinated within the Heart Failure Innovation and Treatment Program, led by Dr. Luanda Grazette. Interventional cardiology contributes to the care and management of heart failure patients by offering a range of procedures, implemented as appropriate and including: primary and high-risk PCI, catheterization during the implantation of hemodynamic support devices, complex revascularization, valvular interventions and ablation for arrhythmia.
PULMONARY EMBOLISM
In collaboration with the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, we developed a 24/7 service to care for sick patients admitted with pulmonary embolism, a life-threatening condition. We have extensive expertise in the endovascular extraction of large clots from the pulmonary arteries with devices such as the Inari Flowtriever or Penumbra.