The Emory Heart Center's Firsts and Breakthroughs
Emory's heart program has earned worldwide recognition for innovative developments in heart disease diagnosis and treatment. In fact, Emory has consistently ranked among the top 10 in U.S. News and World Report's annual survey of America's Best Hospitals.
Emory's heart specialists literally wrote the book on cardiology — the medical textbook, The Heart, first published in 1967 — and built the foundation for cardiovascular care in Georgia by developing training programs that produce 85 percent of the practicing cardiologists and heart surgeons in the state.
In addition, Emory's heart specialists can claim these significant "firsts":
- Established Georgia's First Cardiac Catheterization Lab
- Invented and Developed the Most Important Innovations in Modern Cardiology: Angioplasty & Stents
- Revolutionized Treatment for Georgia's Heart Attack Victims
- Set the Pace in Caring for Patients with Arrhythmias
- Performed Georgia's First and Most Significant Open Heart Procedures
Established Georgia's First Cardiac Catheterization Lab
- In 1942, Emory physicians Eugene Stead, MD, and James Warren, MD, brought national recognition to Georgia and to Emory by establishing the state's first cardiac catheterization lab.
- The lab, one of just a few in the world at the time, was used to study heart failure and circulatory shock for the U.S. Army during WWII. Dr. Warren performed Georgia's first diagnostic catheterization.
- In 1966, Emory physician Robert Schlant, MD, performed Georgia's first coronary arteriogram.
Invented and Developed the Most Important Innovations in Modern Cardiology: Angioplasty & Stents
- In 1977, pioneering cardiologist Andreas Gruentzig, MD, while living in Zurich, Switzerland, invented angioplasty by inserting a catheter into a man's clogged coronary artery and inflating a tiny balloon, which successfully opened the blockage and restored blood flow to the patient's heart. In 1980, Dr. Gruentzig chose to join Emory's faculty to work with other Emory cardiologists to vigorously research and refine this intervention, known as angioplasty.
- Emory subsequently became the international training center for angioplasty.
- In 1987, John Douglas, MD, implanted a coronary stent for the first time in U.S. history.
- In 2001, Dr. Douglas and Ziyad Ghazzal, MD, continued to innovate improvements in interventional cardiology by implanting the first drug-eluting stents in Georgia as part of the landmark SIRIUS and DELIVER studies.
Revolutionized Treatment for Georgia's Heart Attack Victims
- In 1982, cardiologists Andreas Gruentzig, MD, and Douglas Morris, MD, performed Georgia's first injection of a thrombolytic agent into the coronary artery of a patient to stop a heart attack.
- In 1986, Dr. Morris led a team of cardiologists in Georgia's first use of angioplasty to open the occluded coronary artery of a heart attack victim.
Set the Pace in Caring for Patients with Arrhythmias
- In 1987, Paul Walter, MD, inserted Georgia's first implantable defibrillator, a device that senses erratic heartbeats that interfere with the heart's ability to pump blood and delivers a jolt of electricity 10,000 times stronger than one from a pacemaker.
- In 1997, David DeLurgio, MD, Jonathan Langberg, MD, and Angel Leon, MD, performed Georgia's first implantation of biventricular pacemaker designed to resynchronize the beating of the ventricles. The physicians subsequently worked with heart failure specialist Andrew Smith, MD, to manage the patient's care.
- Emory was one of 15 centers in the U.S. and Canada to test the device — developed by Medtronic — as part of the MIRACLE study. Upon FDA approval of the device in 2001, Dr. Leon performed the world's first implantation of the Medtronic cardiac resynchronization therapy system.
Performed Georgia's First and Most Significant Open Heart Procedures
- Working to save the life of a patient with mitral valve stenosis, Emory cardiologist J. Willis Hurst consulted with Emory surgeon Osler Abbott, MD, — the result was the South's first intracardiac operation, successful performed by Dr. Abbott and William Hopkins, MD, in 1951.
- In 1962, Emory physician Charles Hatcher, MD, performed Georgia's first "blue baby" open heart procedure providing a total correction of tetralogy of Fallot — a serious abnormality characterized by four related heart defects.
- In 1963 and 1964, Dr. Hatcher performed Georgia's first single, double and triple aortic valve replacements, followed by the state's first successful coronary bypass surgery (CABG) in 1970.
- In 1996, Emory physician Joseph Craver, MD, performed Georgia's first minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass ("keyhole") surgery, an innovative procedure that reduces patient recovery time, hospital stays and costs.
- In 1997, John Puskas, MD, one of the top five surgeons in the world specializing in multi-vessel off-pump CABGs, performed the world's first minimally invasive triple off-pump bypass surgery using Mini-CABG instrumentation.
Innovated Advancements in Heart Transplantation
- In 1988, Kirk Kanter, MD, and Omar Lattouf, MD, performed Georgia's first "domino" heart transplant by transplanting the healthy heart of a patient with failing lungs into another patient. The first patient then received a heart-lung transplant from a cadaveric donor.
- In 1999, J David Vega, MD, performed Georgia's first dual pump ventricular assist device (VAD) implant. The device serves as a bridge to heart transplantation, pumping blood for the left and right ventricles of the heart.
