Heart Care
Heart care at Longview Regional Medical Center focuses on the functions and disorders of the heart and its connected circulatory system. According to the American Heart Association, 84 million people in the U.S. suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease, affecting blood flow throughout the body. Cardiovascular disease can lead to heart attacks, strokes or other serious complications.
Taking good care of your heart can help reduce your risk of developing heart disease that leads to a heart attack, stroke or other serious complications. Our cardiac care teams provide complete heart care services 24 hours a day, seven days week - from helping you create a heart-healthy lifestyle to performing potentially lifesaving procedures in emergency situations. Longview Regional Medical Center is recognized by the Joint Commission as a Certified Stroke Center and Chest Pain Center.
Our recognitions:
- Certified as an Advanced Primary Stroke and PCE Chest Pain Center
- Member of the Peripheral Artery Disease (P.A.D.) Coalition
- Awarded by AHA’s Get with the Guidelines Stroke Performance
- Our vein center has earned "Best Vein Care Center of Excellence" Status
- Top 50 Heart Hospital by IBM Watson Health
Heart Valve Care
Roughly five million Americans are diagnosed with heart valve disease each year, Longview Regional Medical Center's Cardiovascular Medicine is proud to be the region's first dedicated facility to offer options for treating heart valve disease. Heart valve disease occurs when:
- Heart valve leaflets do not open normally (stenosis), which restricts blood flow, or
- Valves do not close properly (regurgitation), which causes leakage through the valve leaflets.
Symptoms
Symptoms of heart valve disease are very similar to that of coronary disease, such as chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, feeling of fatigue, loss of energy, palpitations and edema (particularly in the lower extremities).
Who should be evaluated?
Anyone with these symptoms should be evaluated. While heart valve disease can happen at any age, those older than 60 are at a higher risk for valve diseases such as aortic stenosis.
Our approach to valvular disease
- Board certified and specially trained in advanced diagnostics
- Care based on the 2014 AHA/ACC guidelines for follow-up care using a heart team approach
- Individualized treatment plan developed and communicated within 24 hours
- Ongoing patient follow-up through all stages of care
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)
Longview Regional Medical Center is among the first hospitals in East Texas to perform transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
Now patients suffering from aortic stenosis, or hardening of the heart’s aortic valve, may have the opportunity to have a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) if recommended by their physician. This advanced procedure allows patients to undergo an aortic heart valve replacement without open heart surgery.
The TAVR procedure allows physicians to replace the heart valve by accessing the heart through the femoral artery in the thigh. Using image-guided equipment, the new valve is expanded in place of the diseased valve and the catheter is removed. This allows Longview Regional Medical Centers heart team physicians to make only a small incision in the upper thigh and a small incision in the chest, as opposed to completely opening up the chest cavity like in open heart surgery. The TAVR procedure typically only takes about two hours, and patients can expect to spend up to two days in the hospital.