St. Francis Surgeon Uses Tissue Regeneration Technology to Rebuild Patients' Heart ...( INDIANAPOLIS July 8 /- A surgeon at t...),Health

INDIANAPOLIS, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- A surgeon at the St. Francis Heart Center is using a revolutionary technology that allows patients to rebuild their own cardiovascular tissue.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090708/DE43062LOGO-a )

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090708/DE43062LOGO-b )

Marc Gerdisch, M.D., is using the CorMatrix Extracellular Matrix (ECM)(TM) to modify and repair cardiac structures, allowing heart tissue to re-grow inside the beating hearts of heart surgery patients. The CorMatrix ECM is a unique biomaterial that harnesses the body's innate ability to repair damaged heart tissue. Over time, it is replaced by the patients' own tissue.

"The use of this biomaterial is a major advancement in cardiac surgery and allows us to provide our patients with restoration of normal anatomic structures. It opens the door to a new level of cardiac tissue reconstruction," said Gerdisch, director of cardiothoracic surgery at the St. Francis Heart Center and a partner at Cardiac Surgery Associates.

In August 2007, Gerdisch, who specializes in complex heart valve surgery, became the first in the world to apply this technology inside the heart, repairing a congenital defect.

"Similar uses of the ECM followed, at our and other institutions," reported Gerdisch, who is co-director of the St. Francis Midwest Heart Valve Center
'/>"/>