Drs. Warren Swee and William Julien, board certified and fellowship trained interventional radiologists, are pleased to announce that they recently implanted their first iDev Flexible Supera Stent in their office - based catherization lab. South Florida Vascular Associates is one of the first office-based cath labs in South Florida to do this procedure. The stent was used to treat a patient who had critical stenosis, or blockage of the superficial femoral artery and the popliteal artery, which is located behind the knee and supplies blood to the knee joint and muscles in the thigh and calf.
“Until recently, stents were hard, inflexible cylinders that could only be used in certain areas of the body, but if a stent was needed in an area such as behind a knee which bends, the older hard, inflexible stents would not hold”, said Dr. Warren Swee. Prior to the development of the new titanium flexible stent, this area was very difficult to treat.
According to the American Heart Association, peripheral artery disease (PAD) of the lower extremities affects approximately 8 million -12 million people in the United States alone. People suffering from PAD have pain, or claudication while walking, often limiting their life-style activities. In order for doctors to open-up the diseased arteries and re-establish blood blow to the lower extremities, stents are often used to keep the arteries open. Stents are a less invasive alternative to surgery for some conditions, which results in a lower procedure-related complication rate and potentially have better outcomes.
“The iDev Stent is a relatively new stent that has good data accumulating about its efficacy”, said Dr. William Julien. This stent is approved for use in the billary ducts of the liver, but we often use it off-label to treat hard to reach areas in the body that require a stent with flexibility needed for areas that bend, such as behind the knee. The new stent’s unique design and composition is improving patient outcomes.
No comments:
Post a Comment