Expert Interventional Cardiologist Appointed Medical Director
Steve Vaganos, M.D., has been appointed medical director of the new cardiac catheterization center at Montgomery. Dr. Vaganos has more than 15 years experience with treating a high volume of patients in full service catheterization laboratories. Together, both Dr. Vaganos and Edward Magargee, M.D., who will also perform interventional procedures at Montgomery, have performed more than 1,000 therapeutic catheterization procedures.
“My experience affords me a certain confidence and expertise in treating all patients with acute and chronic coronary heart conditions,” says Dr. Vaganos. Because of his expertise, Dr. Vaganos says that his patients can be “reassured that they will be treated well and that under his care, they will feel better.” In addition to Dr. Vaganos and Dr. Magargee, the hospital’s staff cardiologists also are excited to be a part of the exciting new treatment options at Montgomery.
Contemporary research suggests that when available, coronary angioplasty and stenting are more superior treatment options for certain patients than traditional clot-busting drug treatments. Some of these patients may include older patients and those with bleeding disorders or ulcers, according to Dr. Vaganos.
Prior to the offering of therapeutic procedures at Montgomery, patients received clot-busting drugs. (Also called thrombolytics, these drugs are used to dissolve blood clots. Blood clots are one of the underlying causes of heart attacks.) If the patients did not respond to the clot-busting medications, they would have to be transferred elsewhere. The transfer could sometimes take up to three hours, causing a delay in aborting the heart attack; and the longer the heart attack progresses, the greater the risk of irreversible heart damage.
“Montgomery Hospital has now succeeded in being one of the first hospitals, without an open heart surgery program, to bring modern angioplasty and stenting procedures to their community,” says Dr. Vaganos. “Advanced equipment, tools and very effective ancillary medicines permit us to offer the community these treatment options,” he says.
However, some patients, such as those with very complex coronary anatomy, may still need to have therapeutic catheterization procedures at a setting with open-heart surgical standby onsite. “The interventional cardiologists have the astute ability to predetermine who can receive the procedures safely at Montgomery and who would need to be transferred to another facility,” says Dr. Vaganos.
He also adds that in the last 25 years, therapy with clot-busting drugs has produced excellent outcomes for many patients. This therapy will remain a treatment option at Montgomery. The doctors will assess each patient’s situation individually to determine who would benefit the most from clot-busting therapy and who would benefit more from interventional procedures.
The cardiac care program at Montgomery is staffed by board-certified cardiologists, a certified nursing team, highly trained diagnostic technicians and a full complement of rehabilitation professionals who can address all levels of care from emergency treatment, diagnostic testing and cardiac catheterization, to outpatient rehabilitation. For more information on the cardiac care program call, 610-270-2781.
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