Foggia Polyclinic: Three cardiac surgeries using the Ross technique on three young patients

A 34-year-old man living in the province of Bari is the third patient in a year to undergo cardiac surgery at the Foggia Polyclinic using the Ross procedure, named after the English surgeon Donald Ross, who first experimented with this technique in 1967 with increasingly significant results. "It's a type of cardiovascular surgery that's especially effective for patients with a long life expectancy," explains Domenico Paparella , director of Cardiac Surgery at the Foggia Polyclinic. "The aortic valve is replaced with the patient's own pulmonary valve without the use of a prosthesis. This is already the third procedure of this type we've performed, the first two performed on patients even younger than the last case."

Ross's procedure isn't among the most common, even at major European cardiac surgery centers. "It's typically performed in pediatric surgery, on very young patients. Only a few cases have been reported in adults in Italy. Having performed three of them in one year in Foggia," Paparella emphasizes, "is a truly remarkable achievement: credit goes to a team of qualified operators and an organization capable of handling the situation."

The other two young patients who underwent Ross's surgery (two in their twenties) are also residents of the Bari area, confirming a fact already consolidated a few days (November 11) into the first year of activity of the complex Foggia facility: 42% of patients coming from other provinces of Puglia, 6% from other regions, turn to the Cardiac Surgery Department of the Policlinico Dauno.

"These interesting numbers confirm the ability of the Foggia Polyclinic to serve as a hub for needs even at the regional level. This destiny," emphasizes the Commissioner of the Foggia Polyclinic, Giuseppe Pasqualone , "is part of the history of the Foggia hospital complex, a point of reference for the Foggia population from all parts of the province. Now, specialization in disciplines such as Cardiac Surgery represents an added value, attracting the attention of patients from other provinces and regions as well."

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