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	Dr. David Shulkin
	Dr. Chris Magovern

	Morristown Medical Center
	Overlook Medical Center
	Newton Medical Center
	Goryeb Children's Hospital

	Morristown Medical Center
	Overlook Medical Center
	Newton Medical Center
	Goryeb Children's Hospital

Coronary Bypass and Valve Replacement

Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute at Morristown Medical Center surgeons perform cutting-edge surgical repair of blocked arteries and damaged valves.

Coronary bypass

During coronary bypass surgery, the surgeon uses a blood vessel from a patient’s leg, arm or inner chest to bypass an obstruction in a coronary artery, improving blood flow to the heart. A patient may undergo a single, double, triple or quadruple bypass, depending on the number of arteries that are blocked. Sometimes coronary bypass surgery can be performed with minimally invasive techniques, making only small incisions in the chest, resulting in less risk and trauma and faster recovery.

Valve repair and replacement

Our surgeons perform more than 500 valve operations each year, placing our program in the top three percent of all cardiac surgical programs in the United States. We are one of only 20 centers in the United States that provide a full range of heart valve treatment options, including the ability to repair both aortic and mitral valves via a one-inch incision in the groin, as opposed to the standard 15-inch incision down the chest.

With this experience, our surgical team is able to repair more than 60 percent of damaged mitral valves. Our mitral valve repair patients had a zero percent mortality rate from 2006 to 2009, an unprecedented accomplishment. We also pioneered a less invasive technique for both mitral and aortic valves and now train surgeons from across the United States and South America in these procedures.

In addition, Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute is one of approximately 40 centers in the United States (and the only facility in New Jersey) to offer the MitraClip, a non-surgical treatment for mitral valve repair.

When possible, surgeons repair any congenital or acquired abnormalities of the heart valves. If the valve cannot be repaired, it is replaced. Frequently surgeons can use minimally invasive surgery techniques to repair or replace a heart valve.