News from The Heart Center

Salina Regional Health Center offers Endoscopic Vein Harvesting

Many patients are surprised to learn that a bypass operation may actually include two surgical procedures.  Primarily, the bypass surgery involves using a healthy blood vessel to "bypass" a damaged or blocked artery in the heart.  The second procedure is the actual removal of a healthy blood vessel, typically the saphenous vein in the patient's leg, which is used to construct the bypass.

Recent advances have made it possible to perform this second procedure in a new way, through endoscopic vein harvesting.  Kevin Koehler, PA-C, (physician assistant certified in cardiac surgery) is performing this new procedure at Salina Regional Health Center's Heart Program.

"With the old method, we would cut the leg open and cut out what vein we needed.  The problem was that with a large incision there was a higher incidence of infection and pain and a longer recovery time.  That combination set patients back and left unsightly scars," Koehler said.

The new procedure allows the leg vein to be removed endoscopically, using "keyhole" surgery that is less painful and leaves a scar only a few inches long beside the knee.  An endoscope is connected to a video camera and inserted through one small incision in the leg.  The endoscope is used to view the vein and allows the vein to be removed with minimal stress to the leg.

Kevin Koehler, PA-C, came to Salina Regional's Heart Program last April and hit the ground running performing 25 endoscopic vein harvests within the first few months.  Koehler comes to Salina from Visalia, California.

Koehler says that almost half of the heart programs across the United States now use this new method of vein harvesting, and foresees it eventually becoming the standard of care.