HCA East Florida

Aventura Hospital & Medical Center and Dr. Robert J. Cubeddu, Interventional Cardiologist, are teaming up to bring advanced procedures for the treatment of cardiac diseases to patients in Miami-Dade County and beyond. These new procedures, called “structural heart disease interventions,” allow for the less invasive treatment of heart valve disorders, stroke-related cardiac problems, and congenital heart defects, previously requiring open heart surgery.

Dr. Cubeddu explains, “For many years, we have been using catheters to treat coronary artery disease and obtain information about the heart’s function. We have perfected the use of balloon angioplasty to open clogged arteries, and placed wire mesh stents to keep the arteries open.”

“Over the past five to 10 years, we have learned to master these catheter techniques to treat other structural problems within the heart, thus allowing many patients to avoid the need for open heart surgery.”

Below are some of the current heart problems that may be addressed with this innovative catheter-based technology:

A • Repair and replacement of significantly diseased heart valves:

Examples: Aortic stenosis, mitral stenosis, mitral insufficiency, among others.  

B • Repair of congenital heart defects:

Examples: closure of Atrial Septal Defects (ASD), Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA), Ventricular Septal Defects (VSD), among other more complex congenital heart disorders.

C • Repair of structural heart problems associated with stroke:

Examples:

a)      Closure of the heart’s “left atrial appendage” as a remedy for patients with atrial fibrillation  or irregular heart rates who can no longer take Coumadin (anticoagulation) for stroke prevention.

b)      Closure of the “patent foramen ovale” in patients who have had prior strokes. A patent foramen ovale is a small hole in the heart seen that may be seen with an echocardiogram, and that may put many patients at increased risk for recurrent strokes.

Dr. Cubeddu explains that in most instances these procedures are done under local anesthesia and patients are usually kept in the hospital overnight for observation. This represents a major advantage of this technology, more so when compared to traditional open heart surgery, where patients typically require general anesthesia, followed by a longer hospital stay and a longer period of healing of the chest wall.

“This becomes a particularly important issue for high risk surgical patients or those patients who are often considered inoperable. Patients may have now an alternative, less invasive means to solve their cardiac problem,” Dr. Cubeddu says. “We are excited to offer these minimally invasive remedies to our patients. It is very rewarding to see patients recover quickly and successfully from these new catheter-based procedures.”

Dr. Cubeddu is board-certified in interventional cardiology and completed his Fellowship training in Structural Heart Disease Interventions and Congenital Heart Disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is one of the very first officially trained U.S. physicians in this discipline and cutting edge technology. He has also completed Fellowships in Cardiology (Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami) and Interventional Cardiology (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard U., Boston).

For further information or to arrange a consultation appointment, please call 786-428-1059.