Hoag Hospital opens advanced cardiac facility

Hoag Hospital this week opened a cardiac operating suite touted by officials as “one of the world’s most advanced.”

The Bob and Marjie Bennett Hybrid Surgical Suite at the Newport Beach hospital is a hybrid cardiovascular operating room equipped with a robotic imaging system that functions like a GPS in a car, said Dr. Aidan A. Raney, medical director of cardiovascular surgery at Hoag’s Heart and Vascular Institute.

The Siemens Artis Zeego system along with 3-D and 4-D reconstruction software helps heart surgeons map out blood vessels, tissue and organs as they operate on patients, hospital officials said.

Hoag recently also became one of the few hospitals in the country — and the only one in Orange County — to provide patients with the option of being treated with the FDA-approved Edwards SAPIEN Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valve, according to a news release.

This option is “important therapy for patients with severe, symptomatic native aortic valve stenosis who are not candidates for traditional surgical replacement,” the release said.

The hybrid surgical suite is named after a Newport Beach couple, Bob and Marjie Bennett, whose $2-million gift was a catalyst for the hospital’s acquisition of the new equipment.

—Imran Vittachi