St. Mary's Continues Perfect Record in Cardiac Bypass Surgery

(June 23, 2011) St. Mary's Hospital is one of only two hospitals in New Jersey that had reported a perfect record for cardiac-bypass surgery, with no deaths reported in the latest New Jersey cardiac-surgery report card released this month. This marks the second time in three years that St. Mary's receives this distinction, as noted in the 2006 report released last year. The report which was based on 2008 statistics also noted that of 18 hospitals licensed to perform cardiac bypass surgery, St. Mary's had the second shortest length of stay for patients after surgery with an average of 5.41 days.

Bypass surgery, a procedure that moderates angina, dramatically lowers the risk of death from heart disease. Angina, severe chest pain due to a lack of oxygen supply, is a result of a blockage in the heart's artery or arteries. During bypass surgery, veins from elsewhere in the patient's body are grafted to the blocked arteries in order to bypass the thickening or narrowing of the tubular organ and improve the blood supply to the heart muscle. Bypass surgery is one of many specialized cardiac procedures performed at St. Mary's Hospital, which is home to the Eastern Heart Institute, and is the first hospital in New Jersey to perform open-heart surgery.

In the News: The Record & Herald News - NJ Heart Surgery Results Improve