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Earlier this month the New York Times explored an important question: “When is the surgeon too old to operate?” Columbia's heart surgeons give us their insight.

Heart surgery has come a long way from when Dr. F. John Lewis performed one of the first open heart surgeries on a 5-year-old girl in 1952 to correct a birth defect that left a hole in the wall of the upper chamber in her heart.

How a Vital Organ Became A Symbol for Love

Teaching patients to advocate for their own heart health via awareness campaigns is starting to make an impact, but there is much more work to be done on the side of health care professionals.

Thanks in large part to the leadership of Columbia’s Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Programs, a new left ventricular assist device, the Heartmate 3™ LVAD is now FDA approved.

On March 29, 2017 NYP/Columbia celebrated 60 years of innovation in open-heart surgery with a gathering of patients, doctors, surgeons, nurses, and an official proclamation from the New York State Assembly and Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer.

"In the past ten years, we have been emphasizing prevention for many forms of heart disease,” says Dr. Edward Schuster, assistant clinical professor of Cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. "With a healthy diet, no smoking and proper medication, we have cut the death rate from coronary events by 50 percent. In Fairfield County, where Columbia has an affiliate hospital, this figure has dropped by an impressive 80 percent, indicating that lifestyle changes can have a big effect."

One of the most advanced and comprehensive in the world

NYP/Columbia is one of the leading centers in the world for patients with end-stage heart disease, and one of the first to allow those with end-stage heart failure to benefit from Heartmate 3. This new left ventricle assist device (LVAD) takes over the pumping action of the heart, moving oxygen-rich blood throughout the body.

In December 2016, a retrospective study from the Mayo Clinic indicated that a surgeon can safely be responsible for two overlapping procedures when critical parts of the procedures are not coincident. The study of overlapping operations showed no difference in patient outcomes, but increased effectiveness and time management.
Paul Kurlansky, MD, Associate Director of Columbia’s Center for Innovation and Outcomes Research at NYP/Columbia, stresses that there is a big difference between overlapping and concurrent operations. With overlapping procedures, "surgeons cannot be booked to perform critical parts of two operations at the same time," he said.
Craig Smith, MD, surgeon-in-chief, NYP/Columbia told Medscape Medical News has been performing overlapping operations routinely for more than 30 years, and he believes his judgment should be trusted with regard to when and how to do them.