Month: February 2022

Minimally invasive methods in spinal neurosurgery is the project that Heart and Brain Center of Excelence is involved with this year: ‘I am truly proud of our results – the success rate for patients with spinal afflictions at the Heart and Brain Pleven Neurosurgery and Spinal Surgery Clinic is over 90 – 93%, which is a very high percentage even for reputable European clinics’.

“Patients come to me at different stages of their suffering – for a primary examination with relevant complaints, for a second opinion or due to unsatisfactory results of surgical treatment. I am convinced that for all these cases we have the right solution, such as they will get in the best European clinics”

“Pleven is an example of how competition in health care provides a very good health product for society. My opinion is that state regulation should be withdrawn to some extent from the sector, to create conditions for more competition. This will, no doubt, lead to more new technologies and an increased quality of healthcare service for patients.”

This is what prof. Toni Vekov, who is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute and the Heart and Brain centers of clinical excellence in Pleven and Burgas. Together with Martin Mitev – the Administrative Director of Heart and Brain in Pleven, they participated in a conference on “Healthcare and Innovations in Medicine”, organized by the Bulgarian News Agency within the framework of the “Bulgarian Voices for Europe” initiative.

Please find the full article here.

The Bulgarian Cardiac Institute announced the winners of the first edition of the competition “My Memorable Patient” for 2021. Participants from all the Institute’s hospitals in the country gathered at the Heart and Brain Hospital in Pleven for the award ceremony.

“For us, the patient always comes first. Moreover, we do not stop paying attention to our scientific development, because our goal is to be a leading medical and scientific organization not only in the country, but also in the whole Southeastern Europe”, said Prof. Dr. Iana Simova – Executive Director of the Bulgarian CardiacInstitute at the award ceremony.

The administrative director of the Heart and Brain Hospital in Pleven, Martin Mitev, also addressed the attendees, noting the great interest in the competition on the part of all BCI clinics and the intention to make the initiative an annual one.

The idea for the ‘My Memorable Patient’ contest was the work of Dr. Anyuta Ivanova, a member of the BCI Board of Directors, who said: “BCI’s mission is to thoroughly investigate the problems of its patients, to provide them with high quality health care and to be committed to the continuing education and professional development of our physicians.”

After discussing the cases presented, the academic jury distinguished three of them:

First place: Clinic of Medical Oncology at Heart and Brain Pleven, for the article “The era of precision medicine: a clinical case of ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer and a review of therapeutic options”. Authors. Ass. Prof. N. Chilingirova, Dr. M. Tsakova, Dr. Damyanov;

Second place: Clinic of Cardiology at Heart and Brain Pleven for the article: ‘Left-sided implantation of a bicuspid pacemaker with an atrial electrode implanted in the right atrial ear and a right ventricular electrode implanted by “loop and drop-down” – the methods in a patient with persistent left superior vena cava’. Authors: Dr N. Petrov, Prof. I. Simova, Dr. P. Pavlov;

Third place: Clinic of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Brain Hospital Pleven, for the article “Complete aortic arch debranching and TEVAR without extracorporeal circulation”. Authors. Dr. N. Bonchev, Dr. A. Georgiev, Dr. Y. Krasnaliev.

All interesting cases will be published in the special first issue for 2022 of the journal Cardiology & Cardiac Surgery.

Interview with Dr Tsvetomir Ivanov, MD, specialist in oncological surgery at the Heart and Brain Hospital Pleven on the occasion of the month when the Bulgarian Cardiological Institute (BCI) focuses public attention on the fight against oncological diseases. At the Heart and Brain Center of Excellence in Pleven we have the only Gamma Knife in Bulgaria for the treatment of all types of tumours in the head and the latest generation linear accelerator, explained the cancer surgery specialist.

– Dr Ivanov, on 4 February we celebrated the World Cancer Day. Why is BCI dedicating an entire month to cancer?

– Cancers are the second most common cause of death in developed countries, making them extremely socially significant. The fight against cancer is very complex and requires serious efforts from both health professionals and patients. Therefore, patient awareness of the problems associated with these diseases is very important and the more informed they are, the more successful their treatment will be. If this interview motivates more people to seek specialist advice, then our efforts have borne fruit.

You can read the full interview here.

Treatment of Covid 19 patients is far from stopping after receiving one negative psi test. Very often, people’s complaints persist for a long time afterwards. We talk about post-coital conditions when the symptoms reappear after the fourth week, said Prof. Dr. Yana Simova, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Cardiology Institute. They launched a free screening campaign to follow up patients who have had a COVID infection – “Life after COVID”. Nearly 700 of the participants so far are from Burgas, said prof. Simova.

You can find the full interview on BNR here in Bulgarian.

The introduction of digital technologies and platforms, telemedicine in real clinical practice are a catalyst to achieve even better results. The goal is to conduct adequate screening of target populations, says Assoc. Prof. Chilingirova

Heart and Brain Center of Excellence in Pleven applies a modern, multidisciplinary and high-tech approach, and our oncology centre is at an international level. Here, all the necessary steps – the diagnostic and therapeutic process, as well as the crucial long-term follow-up – take place in one place, without the patient having to wander between separate institutions at such a difficult time.

Read the full news here in Bulgarian.

Due to the huge interest and inquiries from patients, the high-tech “Heart and Brain” Burgas announced that it has now signed a contract with the NHIF for all specialties and all insured patients can benefit from specialized health services offered on clinical pathways.

The new Swiss hospital has clinics and departments for: cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, general surgery, urology, gastroenterology, anesthesiology and intensive care, nervous diseases, cardiology, orthopedics and traumatology, physical and rehabilitation medicine, clinical and microbiology laboratories. Imaging diagnostics is equipped with nuclear magnetic resonance, 2 X-rays, 2 computed tomographs.

The latest generation da Vinci robotic surgical system is also expected to be launched to serve all surgical specialties. In order to meet also the need for specialized transport, the hospital has its own resuscitation vehicles and trained teams and carries out transport of patients in the country and abroad. It offers the possibility of a second opinion from leading Bulgarian or foreign specialists in their respective fields.

For appointments for examinations, consultations, laboratory and imaging tests, second opinions, specialized transport, etc., please call 056 703003. The new address of the hospital is ul. The new address of the hospital is 1 Zdrave Street, behind the “Prof. Asen Zlatarov” University in Burgas.

“For us, the patient always comes first!”, announced the Heart and Brain Center of Excellence.

Here you can read the original article in English.