Specialisms
At Exeter Heart, a collaborative team of cardiologists, imaging specialists, interventionists, electrophysiologists, and surgeons join forces to create a personalised treatment plan tailored to your specific needs.
Your heart is a pump that pushes blood throughout your body. Sometimes, there can be problems with the blood vessels around the heart. These problems might include blockages or narrowings that can reduce blood flow.
When people have issues like these, an interventional cardiologist comes to the rescue. Instead of using surgery, they use minimally invasive procedures. They insert tiny tubes called catheters through blood vessels, usually starting in the leg or wrist and carefully guide them to the heart.
Once these catheters are in place, the interventional cardiologist can do various things. They might inflate a tiny balloon to widen a narrowed artery or place a small mesh tube called a stent to keep the blood vessel open. This helps to restore proper blood flow to the heart.
Put simply, an interventional cardiologist is like a heart plumber who fixes blockages and keeps the blood flowing smoothly through your heart and body.
ENQUIREElectrophysiology is a specialised branch of cardiology that deals with the electrical activities of the heart. It focuses on the study and treatment of various heart rhythm disorders, known as arrhythmias. Cardiac electrophysiologists, the specialists in this field, utilise advanced technologies and techniques to diagnose and manage irregular heartbeats and related conditions.
Using specialised equipment electrophysiologists identify irregularities in the heart’s electrical system, which can lead to conditions such as atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, or bradycardia.
Once an arrhythmia is identified, electrophysiologists can use various techniques to manage it. This might involve prescribing medications to regulate heart rhythm, performing procedures like catheter ablation to correct abnormal electrical pathways, or implanting devices such as pacemakers or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) to regulate and control heart rhythms.
By specialising in the electrical functions of the heart, electrophysiologists play a crucial role in helping patients manage and treat arrhythmias, thereby reducing the risk of complications such as stroke, heart failure, or sudden cardiac arrest.
ENQUIREHeart failure is a condition where your heart can’t pump blood around your body as well as it should. It doesn’t mean your heart has stopped working but you may need support to help it work better. The heart might be weak or stiff, and this can lead to various symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling.
A heart failure cardiologist is an expert who helps manage and navigate through these challenges. They work on strategies to make the heart pump better and ensure the blood circulates properly throughout the body. The heart is a complex machine with different parts working together. They can check how well each part is functioning and prescribe medications to help the heart pump more effectively.
Think of them as a coach for your heart, guiding it to work better and helping you feel better despite the challenges of heart failure. They are there to improve the performance of your heart so you can manage your condition, enjoy life more and improve your prognosis.
ENQUIREAn imaging specialist cardiologist uses various advanced technologies to take pictures of your heart. These pictures help them to understand how your heart is working and identify any problems or diseases that might be present.
They use techniques like echocardiograms (using sound waves to create pictures of the heart), MRIs (using magnets and radio waves to create detailed images of the heart), CT scans (using X-rays to create cross-sectional images of the heart), and other imaging tools to get a clear view of your heart’s structure and function.
By looking at these images, they can diagnose heart conditions such as heart disease, heart attacks, and heart defects. This allows them to create a treatment plan tailored to your specific condition, ensuring you receive the best care possible for your heart health.
ENQUIREInevitably, some individuals with heart conditions will require surgery. As daunting as it sounds this is now very safe with a 98-99% success rate for many procedures. At Exeter Heart we collaborate with a team of highly skilled cardiac surgeons proficient in various surgical techniques, ensuring comprehensive care for individuals requiring interventions.
This team can conduct open heart surgery to address narrow or leaky valves, or when suitable, provide minimally invasive procedures using keyhole surgery or catheter-based approaches, often requiring only sedation and local anesthesia. They also use endoscopic techniques to harvest vein when required, replacing what was previously a long incision in the leg with just a 2cm cut.
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