Waikato Cardiothoracic Unit

🚨 🇳🇿 Day 3 Recap for the 2026 Annual Cardiothoracic Surgery Meeting of Aotearoa New Zealand 🇳🇿 🚨

Our conference finished strong with advancements & challenges in perioperative care. First off was a review of outcomes after implementing endoscopic vein (and now radial artery) harvest for CABG. Our own Jacque Roberts, Georgia Miller, and Kelsey Abercrombie.

Dr Graeme Porter from Tauranga hospital and Health New Zealand - Bay of Plenty cardiology highlighted challenges for patients from rural areas and their clinicians preparing for surgery.

Dr Daniel Garofalo shared experiences with Pacific Islands Pacemaker Services and how we can help our neighbours in nearby countries.

The legendary Dr Ianthe Boden brought home concepts in postoperative physiotherapy.

Finally we were again fortunate to hear from Robert Groom about high fidelity simulation in resource challenged areas. A wonderfully diverse group of speakers from various disciplines, sharing their inspiring work.

Huge thanks for all attendees, sponsors, speakers for an excellent conference. It was so great to see progressive conversation, collaboration, and motivation to deliver excellent care to our patients!

None of this could be possible without the vision from Obex Medical and the expertise of Sarah Jonson!

See you for the 2027 meeting in Christchurch! Waikato out 🎤

Last week marked another exciting milestone for our cardiac surgery team

After successfully performing Endoscopic Vein Harvest for the past two years (a keyhole way of taking vein from the leg for heart bypass surgery) our RNFSA team have now expanded this approach to the radial artery from the forearm.

In some bypass operations, an artery from the arm is used to improve blood flow to the heart. With this keyhole technique, the artery can be removed through much smaller incisions.

We were fortunate enough to have Reggie Arcilla an experienced Physician Assistant from the United States join us last week to provide guidance as we introduced this technique safely and carefully.

We are incredibly proud to be the first centre in New Zealand to perform endoscopic radial harvest, continuing our commitment towards better recovery for our patients

Last week our RNFSA Nurse Specialists were featured on Radio New Zealand talking about the nurse led Endoscopic Vein Harvesting service at Waikato Hospital

This keyhole technique is changing recovery for patients having Coronary Bypass surgery by reducing leg scars, pain and healing time.

A big thank you to our nursing, surgical and theatre teams that support this, and to RNZ for highlighting the work we do

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/581356/new-technique-at-waikato-hospital-leaves-heart-bypass-patients-with-fewer-scars from RNZ.

New technique at Waikato Hospital leaves heart bypass patients with fewer scars The traditional way of harvesting a vein to use in the surgery involves a long cut down the leg.