Why Choose Loyola?

The heart and vascular specialists at Loyola University Health System (Loyola) have earned their reputation for offering a premier program in Chicago and one of the finest in the nation -- and that's just one reason to choose Loyola for care. At Loyola, your care, whether simple or complex, is in the hands of seasoned experts trained in all types of heart and vascular care. The innovative track record of the team speaks for itself with proven patient outcomes and volumes. Here are additional reasons to choose Loyola.

Expertise

Loyola offers the experience and expertise of many of the nation's top heart and vascular specialists in all areas of treatment.

• Cardiac catheterization - We perform both cardiac and peripheral diagnostic and therapeutic/interventional procedures on adults and pediatric patients in our three state-of-the-art catheterization suites. Loyola's cardiologists offer a wide variety of procedure choices, many of which are not available at the typical community hospital.
• Cardiographics - Loyola provides a comprehensive range of non-invasive cardiac testing, including: electrocardiograms (ECGs); Holter and event monitoring; exercise ECG; echocardiography with or without color-flow Doppler; stress; dobutamine; and transesophageal echocardiography, among others.
• Cardiovascular/thoracic surgery - Our surgical expertise in the areas of coronary artery bypass graft, valvular heart disease, and heart and lung transplantation is nationally renowned.
• Electrophysiology (EP) - Loyola's heart rhythm specialists (electrophysiologists) are among the nation's leaders in the care of adults and children with heart rhythm disorders (arrhythmias).Services include diagnostic EP studies, cardioversions or application of electrical current (energy) to restore normal heartbeat, ablation procedures, and pacemaker and defibrillator implantation.
• Peripheral vascular - Loyola offers a contemporary approach to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of peripheral vascular disease (PVD). A multidisciplinary team of doctors from internal medicine, cardiology, radiology and vascular surgery care for patients with PVD.
• Transplantation - As a major solid organ transplant center in the United States, Loyola has programs in heart, lung and heart-lung transplantation.

Major Programs and Services

• Cardiac catheterization - Loyola interventional cardiologists perform nearly 4,500 cardiac catheterizations annually, the most in northern Illinois.
• Heart Failure Program - provides aggressive medical management, the latest in medications and conventional and leading-edge surgery.
• Heart Transplant Program - one of the oldest and most active programs in the United States, with more than 600 transplants performed since March 1984. 
• Lung Transplant Program - among the top programs in the United States with more than 500 lung transplants since 1988.

 National/State Leadership

• Loyola is one of 38 hospitals in the United States and one of two in Illinois to show above-average outcomes for heart failure patients, according to a survey of more than 4,000 hospitals conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (June 2007).
• Loyola has the best risk-adjusted mortality rate among 606 reporting institutions nationwide for percutaneous coronary interventions, such as angioplasty, according to the American College of Cardiology Foundation National Cardiac Data Registry’s most recent rolling fourth-quarter report (2007). Additionally, Loyola is in the 99th percentile among reporting institutions for treating patients with primary angioplasties within 90 minutes of their arrival in the emergency facility.
• Loyola is one of two Chicago-area facilities using LDL apheresis, which cleanses low-density lipoproteins (LDL) from a patient's bloodstream without removing proteins, antibody clotting factors and other healthy elements.
• Loyola was one of the first hospitals in Illinois to use two spring-loaded mesh "umbrellas" to close holes in adult hearts without performing open-heart surgery. The mesh umbrellas are placed in a catheter, wound through the patient's artery, and then popped open in the heart defect, plugging the hole on both sides.
• Loyola's cardiovascular program has been recognized by Solucient as a 100 Top Hospital® for cardiovascular care by demonstrating superior performance (2007).

Pioneering Programs/Procedures

• Surgeons at Loyola were the first in Illinois to successfully perform a heart-lung transplant in 1986.
• Surgeons at Loyola were the first in Illinois to implant an atrial defibrillator the size of a stopwatch to restore heart rhythm of patients with common heart disorder atrial fibrillation (AF).The defibrillator sends low-energy shocks to restore normal heart rhythm automatically when AF is detected.
• Loyola is one of few centers in the United States treating patients who have allergic reactions to blood thinner with heparin-induced thrombosis, a treatment developed at Loyola.