Cardiac Surgery

The Cardiac Surgery Sector of the HYGEIA Group boasts the largest team of cardiac surgeons in the private sector, with five fully-organised Departments.

In over 30 years of operation, the Adult Cardiac Surgery Sector has performed thousands of procedures and has many great successes and distinctions to be proud of. With an average of 6 procedures per day, HYGEIA quickly became a major cardiac surgery centre at the European level.

The following procedures are performed at HYGEIA hospital:

Coronary artery bypass

• Using arterial grafts. Complete arterial return of blood flow using two mastoid and radial arteries.
• On a beating heart.

Heart valve procedures

Aortic valve

• Replacement and repair with sternotomy or small incision.
• David procedure to avoid aortic valve replacement in aortic aneurysm.
• In collaboration with interventional cardiologists, aortic valves are inserted percutaneously, or in high-risk patients through small incisions in the sternum or chest to a beating heart (TAVI).

Mitral valve

• Apart from replacement, HYGEIA is also a pioneer in mitral valve repair. Major steps have been taken in this area to provide high-quality valve repair, which is recognised internationally as the Gold Standard procedure.
• A thoracoscopic approach for repair has been developed at our Hospital. This means that the procedure is performed without a sternotomy, using only a thoracic incision that is just a few centimetres long.
• The first and second beating heart transapical mitral valve repair procedures were recently performed at HYGEIA on high-risk patients. This was only the 23rd procedure in the world.

Tricuspid valve


• Valve Repair – Valvuloplasty.

Aortic aneurysm procedures

Aneurysms of the aortic root, ascending aorta, aortic arch and descending aorta

• Distinctions regardless of anatomy and position.
• Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms.
• Intraluminal aortic treatment (stent)

Other procedures

• Heart tumours.
• Obstructive cardiomyopathy.
• Congenital heart conditions in adults.

The Cardiac Surgery Departments

• 1^st Cardiac Surgery Department HYGEIA
  • Iakovos Panteliadis, Director
• 2^nd Cardiac Surgery Department HYGEIA
  • Stratis Pattakos, Director
  • Nikolaos Bouboulis, Assoc. Director
  • Apostolos Tsolakis, Assoc. Director
• 3^rd Cardiac Surgery Department HYGEIA
  • Aristotelos Panos – Director
  • Kyriakos Bellos – Assoc. Director
• 4^th Cardiac Surgery Department HYGEIA
  • Dimitrios Iliopoulos, Director

Hybrid Operating Room

HYGEIA’s Hybrid Operating Room is the first of its kind in Greece and one of the most contemporary ORs in Europe.
Its innovative design and state-of-the-art multidisciplinary equipment allow surgeons to simultaneously perform the most advanced intravascular and open surgical procedures at any point of the cardiovascular system and other areas, including vascular surgery, interventional cardiology, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery and interventional radiology.

In addition, it allows for minimally invasive procedures from other medical fields such as orthopaedics, general surgery, trauma surgery and urology.
The Hybrid Operating Room at HYGEIA Hospital covers a surface area of 87 m² and is equipped with the latest imaging and medical equipment for performing complicated surgical procedures under conditions of the utmost safety, speed and reliability.

The Hybrid Operating Room includes:

• PHILIPS Digital Cardiovascular Imaging System Allura Xper FD20, which is considered to be the most advanced imaging system that technology has to offer.
• MAQUET Carbon Fiber Hybrid Operating Room Table Magnus, suitable for vascular surgery, endovascular surgery, interventional cardiology, cardiac surgery, interventional radiology, neurosurgery, orthopaedic surgery, general and trauma surgery.
• Six high-definition monitors for two- and three-dimensional imaging in monochrome or colour.
• MAQUET Operating Room LED Satellite Lights.
• Ceiling Mounted Suspension System for independent movement of Monitors, Lights and Radiation Shields, especially designed for hybrid operating rooms. (Satellite Operating Room Arms by MAQUET).
• Ceiling- and table-mounted radiation shields.
• Latest generation surgical room equipment, suitable for the most complex operations of all surgical and interventional specialities.
• Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS).

INNOVATIONS – SPECIALISATION

The cardiac surgeons at HYGEIA have collaborated with internationally-renowned cardiac surgeons for specialised heart surgery procedures.

• Dr. Patrick Perier – Mitral valve repair, thoracoscopic approach
• Dr. Johannes Bonatti – Robotic coronary artery surgery
• Dr. Federico Benatti – Beating heart surgery
• Dr. Ulrich Hvass – Unsupported aortic valves
• Dr. Paul Urbanski – Aortic arch aneurysm, extracorporeal circulation of the right common carotid
• Dr. Randas Batista – Batista procedure for heart failure
• Dr. Antonio Maria Calafiore – Mitral valve repair and bypass through a minithoracotomy

In addition, the Cardiac Surgery Departments have developed international collaborations at both the clinical and research level (Geneva University Hospital), while the cardiac surgeons actively participate in all scientific conferences in Greece with a number of lectures and publications.