The Southern Hills Heart Center
When Minutes Matter
|
Minutes matter. Call 911 and go to the nearest emergency room if you experience the following signs of a heart attack:
Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back.
Discomfort in the upper body, including arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach.
Shortness of breath
Sweating, nausea or dizziness
Unexplained weakness or fatigue. |
| Source: American Heart Association |
Most patients assume if they have heart disease, they’ll need open-heart surgery. Recent medical advances turn that assumption on its head. Today, only one of every four cardiovascular-related cases requires bypass surgery, according to the American Heart Association. The other 75 percent can be treated with much less invasive techniques, commonly called interventional heart procedures.
Southern Hills Medical Center offers interventional procedures such as [balloon angioplasty] and [stenting] 24 hours a day—in a state-of-the-art Heart Center that sets a new standard for cardiovascular care. These procedures can stop a heart attack before it starts, and that speed is essential to saving precious heart muscle.
 |
Southern Hills patient Cheryl Sprouse can attest to the miracle of such treatment.
Read her story... |
With some of the fastest emergency response times in the nation, Southern Hills consistently beats the national benchmark in interventional heart care. Southern Hills Medical Center offered the first elective community-based angioplasty services in Middle Tennessee under the leadership of cardiologist, Robert Ripley, M.D., a 25-year veteran of the hospital’s medical staff.
In November 2003, the Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers named Southern Hills Medical Center the first nationally accredited Chest Pain Center in Middle Tennessee and only the seventh such center in the nation. The accreditation distinguishes Southern Hills from other hospitals in the rapid diagnosis and treatment of chest pain.
Fast action is the best way to prevent or limit damage to precious heart muscle. Several interventional procedures performed by doctors at Southern Hills Heart Center can stop a heart attack before it starts.
- Coronary Angioplasty—A non-surgical treatment for blocked or narrowed passages in a coronary artery. This procedure allows a normal supply of blood to flow through the heart muscle. One common type is a balloon angioplasty.
- Balloon Angioplasty—Doctors insert a tiny deflated balloon attached to a catheter into a blocked artery. Once the catheter is in place, the balloon is inflated to push plaque to the artery walls and increase blood flow. Following a balloon angioplasty, the doctor will often insert a stent into the widened artery.
- Stents—These are wire mesh tubes that form a scaffold to support the artery walls. They can be used following angioplasty or on their own to prevent blockages, increase blood flow and decrease chest pain.
;)
