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Physicians Regional Healthcare System is excited to welcome cardiothoracic surgeon Dennis Stapleton, M.D. to their medical staff. Dr. Stapleton, along with long-time colleague, Scot Schultz, MD., will be one of two cardiothoracic surgeons heading the cardiac team at the newly expanded open-heart program at Physicians Regional.
Graduating from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, Stapleton then earned his medical degree from the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Then heading south to Atlanta, Georgia he spent seven years in a general and cardiothoracic surgical residency at Grady Memorial Hospital and the Emory University Hospital system. From there Dr. Stapleton traveled further south and began his surgical career in Ft. Myers at Southwest Regional Medical Center, where he was then subsequently instrumental in opening the cardiac surgical programs at Lee Memorial Hospital.
Most recently, Dr. Stapleton was director of the cardiothoracic surgical program at Fawcett Memorial in Charlotte County. No stranger to the Naples area Stapleton performed the first open-heart surgery at Naples Community Hospital, in addition to serving as the Chief of Cardiac Surgery for over twenty years.
Dr. Stapleton’s specialties will include coronary artery bypass grafting, minimally invasive heart valve surgery, robotic and video-assisted thoracoscopic lung surgery, mediastinal tumors, aortic dissection, aortic aneurysms, and cardiac arrhythmia surgeries.
For those who are not familiar, coronary artery bypass surgery is a type of surgery to treat people who have severe coronary artery disease. This results in improved blood flow to the heart. Coronary artery disease is the narrowing of the coronary arteries, blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle.
Coronary disease is caused by a build-up of plaque within the walls of the arteries. If the blood supply to your heart muscle decreases, you may have a heart attack. However, one way to treat the blocked or narrowed arteries is to bypass the blocked portion of the coronary artery with a piece of a healthy blood vessel from elsewhere in your body. In this procedure, Dr. Stapleton attaches one end of the graft above the blockage, and the other end below the blockage. Blood then bypasses the blockage by going through the new graft to reach the heart muscle.
Symptoms of coronary artery disease may include the following:
• Chest pain
• Fatigue
• Palpitations
• Abnormal heart rhythms
• Shortness of breath
• Swelling in the hands and feet
• Indigestion
As Dr. Stapleton tells it, “Even after all these years of doing complex heart and lung surgeries, the best part of this life for me is the personal interaction with my patients. The best reward is in helping each patient realize that after heart surgery, they can return to an active healthy lifestyle with true quality despite their heart problems.“
With substantial growth in the area comes a need for expanded cardiac services and Physicians Regional Healthcare System is thrilled to bring this expanded cardiac service to the ever-growing Southwest Florida community.
Dr. Stapleton is now accepting new patients.
Dr. Stapleton’s office is located at Physicians Regional Pine Ridge,
6101 Pine Ridge Road, Naples, FL 34119.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 239-348-4221 or visit www.PhysiciansRegionalMedicalGroup.