LEWISTON – “A Cardiovascular Surgery Update” will be the topic of an Accenting Women’s Health presentation being offered at Central Maine Medical Center on Monday, Feb. 9, and again on Thursday, Feb. 12.

Dr. Joseph McClain, chief of cardiovascular surgery at the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute and Central Maine Medical Center, will discuss emerging trends in cardiovascular surgery, focusing on “off-pump” cardiac surgery, also called “beating heart surgery.”

Off-pump cardiac surgery is a relatively new innovation in open-heart surgery in which the surgeon repairs an individual’s heart without turning off the patient’s heart or lungs. In conventional open-heart surgery, a heart-lung machine is employed to sustain the patient while the surgical team repairs the heart. With off-pump surgery, the patient’s heart and lungs continue to function throughout the procedure.

Off-pump surgery is less-invasive and generally results in outcomes that are equal to or exceed outcomes for conventional cardiac surgery. Presently, between 15 and 20 percent of open-heart surgeries are completed off-pump.

McClain came to CMHVI last year from Richmond, Va., where he was on staff at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Medical College of Virginia Campus. He was also on staff at Duke University Medical Center.

McClain was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and served as chief of thoracic and vascular surgery at the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, from Sept. 2005 to May 2006. Partly as a result of his work in Iraq at what has been described as “the busiest trauma hospital in the world,” McClain has extraordinary surgical experience.

Following his graduation from high school in Madison, Neb., McClain enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve. He graduated with honors from Tarkio College in Tarkio, Mo., and earned a master’s degree in physiology and biophysics from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, graduating with distinction. He also served as a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Fellow at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine-Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa.

McClain completed a surgical internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and served general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery residencies at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

The Feb. 9 program will begin at 1:30 p.m. and the Feb. 12 program will be presented at 6 p.m. Both will be offered in the Chairmen’s Rooms, lower level of the 12 High Street Medical Office Building, adjacent to CMMC.

Those interested in attending either of the programs should register in advance by calling 795-2106 or emailing [email protected]. Interpreter services are available upon advance request.