Surgery that removes piece of heart to reduce risk of second heart attack (?)

  I was informed that there was a procedure to surgically remove
  a piece of the heart (in overweight people?) that reduces the heart's
  workload consequently reduces the risk of a second heart attack.  I was
  also told that the Cleveland Clinic has done research in this area.  Is
  this true?  If so, how could I get more information on this procedure
  and it's feasibility?  Thanks for your help.
  Debarshi
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Dear Debarshi,
Thank you for your question.   The procedure you are referring to is called a Batista Procedure.  This surgery is not for overweight people or to decrease the risk of a heart attack but is instead for persons with very severe heart failure.  The idea of the procedure is to change the shape of the failing heart from a baggy ball to a more correct cone shape.  It has somewhat fallen out of favor due to high complication rates and we have not done any of these procedures recently.
I hope you find this information useful.  Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only.  Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies.  Please feel free to write back with additional questions.
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter.  The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.