PBGMC First In State to Offer New Treatment for Atrial Fibrillation
Aug 4, 2017Palm Beach Gardens, Fla- August 4th 2017- Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center is the first hospital in the state of Florida to perform heart ablations with the HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System. This technology is a visually guided laser balloon giving physicians the ability to see within the heart and, for the first time, pinpoint and treat the cause of atrial fibrillation at the source. So far, more than 4,000 patients with AFib have been successfully treated with the system.
“This therapy will have significant benefits for those suffering from AFib,” said Dianne Goldenberg, CEO at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center. “This technology will help those in our community who are dealing with this disease and allow them to have a more productive and active life.”
More than 2.3 million people in the United States suffer from atrial fibrillation, and the numbers are climbing along with the growing older population. AFib occurs when rapid, disorganized electrical signals cause the heart's two upper chambers (called the atria) to contract very fast and irregularly. If left untreated, AFib can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications.
The HeartLight System provides physicians with the capacity to see within the heart and, for the first time, visually direct the application of laser energy to achieve durable PVI. The HeartLight also allows full rotational and axial energy positioning capabilities. Energy is applied in a series of continuous 30° arcs, and can be freely directed to any area, creating precisely tailored lesion sets. The Endoscope allows the electrophysiologist (EP) to visually see the pulmonary veins (PVs) they are ablating unlike older or alternative solutions that rely on x-ray or mapping support for guidance. A universal balloon easily accommodates PVs with varying anatomies and sizes, providing the clinician maximum procedural flexibility. Focused laser energy enables precise ablation, optimized for variations in the anatomy as well as the ability to titrate energy as needed for an individual patient’s cardiac anatomy and varied thickness of the PVs.
About Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center
Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center is a 199-bed acute care hospital serving the medical and healthcare needs of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast for more than 45 years. The hospital was the first in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast to perform open-heart surgery and has since remained one of the area’s leading heart hospitals, having performed over 16,000 open-heart surgeries and more than 100,000 cardiac catheterizations to date.
The Heart & Vascular Institute at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center offers comprehensive cardiac care and advanced minimally invasive procedures including Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) and MitraClip. The hospital is the first in Palm Beach, Broward and Martin County to adopt the new minimally invasive convergent approach to treat patients with atrial fibrillation. Most recently, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center became the first hospital from Miami to Jacksonville to commercially utilize a fully dissolving heart stent in the treatment of coronary artery disease. Due to the outstanding work of the Heart & Vascular Institute, Palm Beach Gardens was the only hospital in Florida to receive all three Healthgrades® America's Best Cardiac Specialty Awards in 2017 – America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery™, America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Coronary Intervention™, and America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care™.
Additional services include orthopedics and joint replacement, a Certified Primary Stroke Center, diagnostic imaging, general and robotic surgery, an Epilepsy Program and 24-hour emergency care. Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center’s Emergency Department offers all private rooms and is equipped with technology to help increase patient comfort, reduce wait times and provide up-to-the-minute patient status, as well as immediate access to film-based radiological images, interpretations and related data. The hospital’s Epilepsy Program is the first of its kind in Palm Beach County to have a dedicated Epilepsy Monitoring Unit for patients in need of further assessment.
Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center has been recognized by The Joint Commission as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for four years in a row and by Healthgrades® as a Five-Star Recipient for the Treatment of Heart Failure for 10 consecutive years (2007-2016). The hospital was also the recipient of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for three years in a row (2013-2015). Additionally, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center earned Chest Pain Center Accreditation from the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care. For more information or for a complimentary physician referral, please call 561-625-5070 or visit www.pbgmc.com.
