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Dr. John V. Conte |
In the procedure, called ventricular restoration, John V. Conte, M.D., restores the heart to its normal size by removing non-functioning tissue scarred by a heart attack. The process uses a plastic mold inserted into the left ventricle, or main pumping chamber of the heart, as a guide to determine normal size and shape.
A Johns Hopkins cardiac surgeon is one of only a handful in the country performing an uncommon procedure to reshape enlarged, damaged hearts in heart failure patients, restoring efficiency and potentially preventing the need for a transplant.
The result? A heart that contracts more efficiently.
“By reshaping the heart to a normal and more elliptical shape, we get better contraction,” says Conte, Hopkins director of the heart and lung transplant programs and a teacher of national training courses for the procedure. “The procedure could take patients off the heart transplant wait list, or prevent them from having to go on the list to begin with.”
