New level of cardiac care available in Southwest Georgia

ALBANY — A new physician at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital with a skill set unique to rural medicine may be helpful in providing a higher level of care for heart patients in Southwest Georgia.

Dr. Giovanni Piovesana is a cardiothoracic surgeon who began practicing at Phoebe several weeks ago. The monthly meeting of the hospital’s board of directors last week gave Piovesana the opportunity to tell more about himself and what he can bring to Southwest Georgia’s cardiac patients.

“There is a growing structural heart problem. The goal in my future at Phoebe is to contribute with (my experience),” he said.

Piovesana said his specialties include adult cardiac surgery, transcatheter aortic valve implantation, or TAVR, and open and minimally invasive thoracic surgery. Coronary artery bypass graft, aortic valve replacement, aortic root replacement, mitral valve repair, tricuspid valve repair and pacemakers fall under adult cardiac surgery.

The TAVR procedures typically done at Phoebe, since it was introduced to the hospital’s patient base last year, have been transfemoral — but transapical or transaortic are other options that can be used, he said.

The TAVR procedure is minimally invasive and enables the transcatheter implant of a bioprosthetic aortic valve. It is considered ideal for patients who would have poor outcomes in open-chest valve replacement surgery. A transfemoral approach is defined by an entrance into the body by the femoral artery. Transapical goes through the apex of the heart, while the transaortic approach enters the heart through the ascending aorta.

The transfemoral approach was introduced at Phoebe in October.

The spectrum of thoracic and lung procedures, Piovesana said, includes video-assisted thoracic surgery, thoracotomy, decortication, pleurectomy, pneumonectomy, lung biopsy, wedge resection, lobectomy and pericardial window.

The surgeon said that, in the time he has used to get familiar with the environment and patient base in the Southwest Georgia region, he now envisions a variety of procedures that can be done.

When applied to the right patients, such advancements can be “a great technology,” both in terms of quality and effectiveness, Piovesana said.

“By the great volume of patients, we can apply all the techniques to different patients,” he said. “(The medical team) can give them a personalized best treatment. (For a thoracic and aortic valve problem), as the population gets older, they are more at risk for that.

“By bringing the experience here, we can treat more complex cases.”

Piovesana received his medical degree from the University of Milan in Italy, graduating cum laude. He completed his advanced general surgery clinical clerkship at Harvard University as a visiting student and his general surgery residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He did his fellowship of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Florida Shand Hospital in Gainesville.