Maria Cecilia Hospital GVM

Internationally Renowned Advanced
Medical Research Hospital

Location: Via Corriera 1 – Cotignola, Ravenna, Italy

Years of experience

Electrophysiology procedures a year

Surgeries on diabetic foot a year

Gamma Knife procedures a year

Overview

The Maria Cecilia Hospital was founded in 1973 as the first hospital of the holding GVM Care & Research and distinguished itself for its innovative techniques and highly complex procedures. Thank you to its research activity, published in many prestigious medical journals, it became one of the most important hospitals in Italy and abroad for heart surgery, electrophysiology, neurosurgery and treatment of diabetic foot. The hospital is also home to the prestigious GVM Campus, the training centre of GVM Care & Research, which organises national and international congresses and medical-scientific conferences for all professional groups.

The Heart Team of Maria Cecilia Hospital performs over 15 % of all the Cardiac Surgery operations in Italy. Decisions regarding the most complex cases are no longer handled by a single physician, but by a multidisciplinary team composed of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac anaesthesiologists and other specialists.

The hospital is located near Bologna International Airport (one-hour drive) and can arrange transportation services and assist with all travel needs.

The hospital has 211 beds, 24 of which are for intensive care.

Treatment of Diabetic Foot

The department of Diabetic Foot Treatment, directed by Prof. Dalla Paola, boast a 30 years clinical experience, 1.000 surgical procedures a year, 270 surgeries performed in-live at congresses and 115 international publications, and a 95 % success rate in avoiding amputations for whom there is no alternative.

The team carries out an intense outpatient activity, aimed at the prevention, therapy and rehabilitation of complications of diabetes in the lower limbs, both in the acute and chronic phases. The multidisciplinary team includes: Diabetic foot surgeons, Cardiologists, Diabetologists, Vascular surgeons, Hemodynamists, Podiatrists, Specialized nurses and Orthopedic technicians.

Services offered:

Screening and diagnosis of lower limb complications of diabetes;
Study and orthotic correction of biomechanical alterations of the diabetic foot;
Conservative treatment of uncomplicated diabetic ulcerative lesions of the lower limbs and foot;
Conservative surgery of ulcerative lesions and osteomyelitis in the diabetic foot;
Emergency surgery for limb salvage (LIMB SALVAGE);
Prophylactic and preventive surgery of Charcot’s neuroarthropathy;
Conservative surgery of osteomyelitis in Charcot neuroarthropathy.

Any patient can book a first remote consultation with one of the referral doctors and with the Professor Dalla Paola.

Neurosurgery and Spine Surgery

The Maria Cecilia Hospital Neurosurgery team is dedicated to surgery for the resolution of pathologies of the central and peripheral nervous system, pathologies of the spine, skull and brain. Interventions are performed for the removal of brain tumors, vascular malformations and resolution of vascular-nervous conflicts such as the dreaded trigeminal neuralgia.

Thanks to the excellent level of radiological studies, the use of the modern concept operating microscope and intraoperative monitoring systems, it is possible to perform even the most complex operations. Neurosurgeons use ORBEYE TM, an innovative video microsurgical technique using a digital microscope with a 4K 3D orbital camera with exoscopic access, to remove extensive brain tumors. All the techniques of Diskectomy, Laminectomy, Spinal fusion, Spine stabilization and reconstruction, Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are performed.

Particular attention is dedicated to the treatment of spinal pathologies, from the most frequent (such as cervical, dorsal and lumbar disc herniation) to the most complex such as spinal column and spinal cord tumor pathologies, spinal deformities and traumas. Modern vertebral stabilization techniques are used to treat painful pathologies of the spine caused by instability; minimally invasive endoscopic techniques, are used to treat spine fractures and herniation. Common and rare spine diseases are treated here, from scoliosis to spina bifida or cauda equina syndrome.

The Maria Cecilia Hospital is a pioneer in performing craniotomies using piezoelectric surgery, an innovative, minimally invasive method for performing safe and effective osteotomies. Piezosurgery is a promising new technique for selective bone cutting while preserving soft tissue. It is an alternative to the conventional management of osseous tissue using rotating or perforating instruments. Interventions of this type make it possible not to leave any aesthetic mark on the patient’s head, which was considered one of the disadvantages of craniotomy.

Gamma Knife

The Gamma Knife Department for the treatment of brain lesions makes it possible to avoid the use of a scalpel through the targeted administration of stereotaxic radiosurgery. At Maria Cecilia Hospital, the most recent model of Gamma Knife, called Perfexion, offers advantages for both operators and patients due to the full robotization of all treatment phases. The automation of patient positioning procedures is made possible by this machine, resulting in an increase in fully digitalized quality controls and a decrease in treatment times.

Around 550 procedures are performed a year. Particular attention is paid to the follow-ups of the patients treated, remotely over the years. The outcome is promising and boasts a very high rate of completely cured patients, with no tumor recurrence. The experience in combining the most advanced techniques, from neuronavigation to radiosurgery using the latest model of Gamma Knife, today allows us to deal with even pathologies of the central nervous system with excellent chances of recovery, which a few years ago were not even subjected to a neurosurgeon. In particular, deep tumors or residuals from previous surgery, even multiple brain metastases, trigeminal neuralgia, cerebrovascular malformations of almost any size and in inaccessible locations, are now treated with high efficacy and drastic reduction or elimination of undesirable effects – such as, for example, the dreaded facial deficit in acoustic neuroma.

Thanks to advanced techniques like neuronavigation and radiosurgery with the latest Gamma Knife model, patients with central nervous system pathologies now have significantly improved chances of recovery. This has led to successful treatment of previously difficult-to-treat conditions like deep tumors, multiple brain metastases, trigeminal neuralgia, and cerebrovascular malformations, while also reducing hospitalization times and convalescence duration.

Arrhythmology and Electrophysiology

Maria Cecilia Hospital, is one international reference center in the treatment of any type of heart rhythm disturbance and heart failure and is equipped with the latest technologies, from robotic navigation, until the electric or hybrid reconstruction of the heart chambers (with MRI, CT or rotational fluoroscopic reconstruction, and non-fluoroscopic).

The Department is a world leader in the treatment of atrial fibrillation by use of non-fluoroscopic electroanatomic mapping systems and reference center for treatment using cryo-ballon technology and for pacemaker implants and defibrillators for the prevention of sudden death. With over 50 years of experience in the study, diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, the medical team from Maria Cecilia Hospital was among the first electrophysiologists in Italy to have implanted the Micra TPS, the smallest pacemaker in the world, which does not require surgery, and the hospital was one of 14 centres worldwide to test this device.

They perform evolutionary and extremely minimally invasive cardiac ablation reversals, such as the use of one-shot technology (cryo-ballon, RF ballon Heliostar, PFA ablation), as well as “hybrid” procedures such as end-epicardial catheter ablation and lead extraction with manual, mechanical and laser methods. The operating rooms are equipped with technology for “hybrid” procedures and with “stereotaxic” technology with robotic navigation. There are 2 latest generation electromagnetic navigation systems.

The Arrhythmology Unit at the Maria Cecilia Hospital is the point of reference for national and international scientific societies such as the American College of Cardiology, the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Society, the European Heart Rhythm Association, and the European Society of Cardiology. Several study projects, are carried out here, such as the research and treatment of patients affected by rare syndromes associated with arrhythmias and heart failure (Brugada syndrome, or Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome etc).

Mitral Valve Repair Surgery

Over 85% of mitral reparative surgery (for narrow or stenotic valve) is performed with intercostal access, i.e. with mini-thoracotomy at the level of the third/fourth space which allows the correct functionality of the valve apparatus to be restored, avoiding additional orthopedic trauma.

Aortic valve replacement surgery is also performed with a ministernotomy approach, allowing to intervene on very elderly patients (over 75) and with high clinical instability.

In selected cases and previously evaluated by the Heart Team, the repair of the mitral valve can be also completed by applying small metal devices (MitraClip) which reduce its insufficiency. At Maria Cecilia Hospital in Cotignola, the tricuspid valve stenosis is treated, using the innovative Triclip, a clip that is positioned in a minimally invasive way from a leg vein and repairs the valve flaps. This procedure restores the normal closure of the valve with each heart beat, in such a way as to reduce the degree of insufficiency with considerable benefit for the patient’s health.

The minimally invasive techniques, in addition to representing an authentic methodological innovation – in constant consolidation – allows for the fastest psychophysical recovery times for the patient and a lower request for blood transfusions.

Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (TMR) Surgery

The Maria Cecilia Hospital is one of the few centers in Europe to carry out this complex neurosurgical technique, called TMR (Targeted Muscle Reinnervation). This operation is performed to allow the patient control an artificial limb, specifically bionic limbs. In the last few years, 7 TMR procedures have been performed in Italy (there are about fifty in the world), all supervised by Maria Cecilia Hospital specialists.

The operation consists in freeing the nerves from post-traumatic scar adhesions and connecting the nerves that controlled the function of the lost limb with the muscles of the shoulder-chest region. These target muscles will then function as a signal amplifier for the electrodes of the prosthesis. The TMR allows to improve the control of the prosthesis and facilitate the rehabilitation process of the patient.

Robotic Urology and Gynecology

The Maria Cecilia Hospital’s team is specialized in minimally invasive therapy, especially in robot-assisted, laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery. The most performed urological robotic procedures are: Radical prostatectomy, Partial or radical nephrectomy, Radical cystectomy, Pyeloplasty/ureteroplasty and ureteral reimplantation and Sacral colpopexy. Micro invasive laser treatments are used to treat the Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).

The doctors currently use the Hugo robot-assisted system, a technology used for minimally invasive procedures in both urological and gynecological fields. Robotics, when applied in gynaecological surgeries, makes it possible to intervene on many of the most common female pathologies: fibroids, endometrial cancer, uterine prolapse, ovarian cysts (when surgical removal is indicated) and endometriosis, which affects a good percentage of women of childbearing age, causing strong pain and often compromise a good quality of life.

High Level Accommodation

Guests are welcomed by dedicated staff in the admission office, then they are taken to the Reserved Admissions Area where, after completing formalities with the reception office, they are assigned to a specific room. The inpatient apartments have a personal assistant offering a customised accommodation service meeting all of the patient’s needs as long as they are compatible with medical indications.

Each suite dedicated for private patients has two rooms. Bedrooms are equipped with a modern and functional inpatient bed a smart TV set, a minibar, a safe, free Wi-Fi and a courtesy kit. The living room is furnished with a sofa-bed for the best comfort of the second guest. Rooms have wide windows brightening up the space – some of them also have a terrace.