Management Of Heart Failure, Volume 2: Surgical

Heart failure is the biggest killer in the western world, with an estimated 5 million cases in the US alone and at least 400 000 new cases being diagnosed each year, but the number of clinical books going into detail on surgical management have been limited.

The management of heart failure has undergone great changes in the last few years. There is very little comprehensive information about co-ordinated care of patients with heart failure. There has been a growth in heart failure cardiology and in the community treatment of heart failure, which have not been taught in medical schools or teaching hospitals. Traditionally surgical procedures have revolved predominantly around the transplant procedure, but more non-transplant methods are gaining in popularity.

This book set will provide the full spectrum of surgical options in heart failure from transplant to the more noninvasive procedures in the interventional radiology department. The contributing authors are all key opinion leaders in the surgical management of heart failure. This surgical volume is designed to integrate with its sister medical volume but also be the definitive guide to the surgical management of heart failure.

Jai Raman, MD, PhD is a highly skilled cardiac and thoracic surgeon known for his efforts to develop new and innovative surgical procedures, especially for the treatment of heart failure. He helped develop ventricular containment (or the wrap procedure) and performed the first eight of these procedures in the world. In addition, Dr. Raman developed the geometric endoventricular repair procedure – a new technique to reconstruct badly scarred heart chambers to restore the shape and size of the heart's ventricles. Dr. Raman is also an expert in the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation. He has created new surgical instruments to perform intra-operative radiofrequency ablation to eliminate the tissue that causes abnormal heart rhythms. His work to develop new techniques to repair mitral and tricuspid valves has been particularly successful. These procedures have spared many patients from requiring early total heart valve replacement. Dr. Raman is actively researching methods to improve graft survival and graft-harvesting procedures for coronary artery bypass graft surgery. He is currently co-coordinating a worldwide study on the long-term efficacy of using the radial artery for bypass surgery. In addition, he is studying the exclusive use of off-pump arterial grafting, which has been shown to decrease the need for red blood cell transfusion during bypass surgery and reduce the risk of stroke. In total, Dr. Raman has performed nearly 2000 heart surgery procedures and more than 600 thoracic operations. His surgical expertise encompasses a wide range of cardiac and thoracic procedures, with particular skill in complex, high-risk cardiac surgeries.