Severance Hospital Opens 'Daedongmak Center'..."Catching the Golden Time for Aortic Diseases"

Severance Hospital announced on the 17th that it has opened an 'Aortic Center' within the Cardiovascular Hospital to enhance emergency treatment capabilities for patients with aortic diseases.

The Severance Hospital Aortic Center has established a system capable of rapid treatment. Instead of emergency room medical staff, a cardiovascular surgery professor directly waits for transfer inquiry calls, and the transfer process has been simplified to minimize the time required for treatment.

Patients are immediately transferred to the intensive care unit of Severance Cardiovascular Hospital. Typically, emergency patients experience delays as they go through the emergency room before receiving treatment, but here, patients are transferred directly to the ICU, which can immediately move them to an operating room capable of surgery and procedures, allowing for rapid treatment initiation.

A system has also been established to quickly treat outpatient cases. Patients can see both cardiology and cardiovascular surgery outpatient clinics at the Aortic Center in one visit. They see cardiology in the morning and surgery in the afternoon. This is to allow patients at risk of aortic rupture in the morning outpatient clinic to receive afternoon consultation and proceed directly to surgery. It is expected to greatly alleviate the concerns of patients who do not know when their aorta might rupture.

[Photo by Yonsei Medical Center]

Severance Hospital introduced that the foundation of this system is based on the multidisciplinary treatment capabilities developed over time. The treatment, procedures, and surgeries for aortic diseases involve not only cardiovascular surgery and cardiology but also professors from radiology and anesthesiology and pain medicine. The hospital explains that various departments come together to establish the best treatment direction.

Center Director Joo Hyun-chul (Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery) said, "If treatment is not performed within the golden time of 1 to 24 hours after acute aortic disease occurs, the patient can die instantly," adding, "To save every minute and second of this golden time, our center has cardiovascular surgery professors directly waiting for calls to ensure thorough patient care."

Additionally, Severance Hospital has opened a hybrid operating room at Severance Cardiovascular Hospital. This is the second such facility since the first hybrid operating room was opened in Korea in 2011. In the hybrid operating room, surgery and procedures can be performed simultaneously. One advantage is that in case of an emergency during a procedure, it can immediately switch to surgery.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.