Huntsville Hospital's cardiovascular team mends broken hearts every day. They've been doing it for years. But there's a new procedure being done that takes heart surgery to a whole new level.
We recently caught up with Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Warren Strickland as he was telling one of his patients, Linda Burttram of Huntsville, "Once we get the tube in and we get the hole fixed, we'll bring you back over here, take the tube out of your leg and tomorrow, you'll be home." Linda was about to undergo a new procedure to fix her heart.
Dr. Strickland found a problem after learning that Linda had suffered a stroke nine years ago. Linda told us, "They did the scope to look at the back of my heart and said that I had a substantial hole in my heart so we talked about it and he suggested that he does this procedure to repair the hole."
Linda's one of those one in four people who has a hole in their heart. Dr. Strickland says, "It's a congenital defect. In other words, it's something that we're born with. It's just an error of development that causes the septum to not completely develop and in the great majority of patients, they're not a problem but in some patients because of the size of the hole and the location of the hole, it can have catastrophic consequences."
Before that happens, Dr. Strickland and his team from the Huntsville Hospital Heart Center will do a procedure to close the opening. Linda says, " It's just so wonderful to know that you can go through this procedure and not have to go through the extensive open heart surgery." And the best news is she gets to go home the next day.
Instead of cracking her check and doing open heart surgery, Dr. Strickland repairs the heart by making an incision in Linda's leg and using a catheter in a vein to get to the hole and plug the problem. He uses a device that looks like one of those little umbrellas you see in a drink but on a much smaller scale and much more high tech. Dr. Strickland explains, " We cross the defect on one side of the wall. Then we deploy one disc. We pull it against the wall. Then we deploy the other and it seals the hole. That's how it works."
Before this major breakthrough in medical technology, patients had to undergo major surgery to get the same results. Dr. Strickland adds, "It was a big procedure. We're talking about open heart surgery to fix asd's or pfo's. Now, we can go through the vein in the leg and it's an hour procedure."
A balloon is inserted into Linda's heart to find the hole and to determine just how big it is. It was about half the diameter of a dime. Once the device was deployed to seal the opening, it was put into place and in 3 to 6 months, Dr. Strickland tells us, "The lining of the heart itself, grows over the device and really, only aspirin is required for the patient then."
Linda spends one night in the hospital and goes home the next day. And 48 hours after the procedure, she resumes her normal activities. Linda had the procedure on Wednesday and was back at work on Monday. She says she feels "absolutely wonderful" and when asked if she notices a difference, she says, "Oh yes, I don't remember ever feeling this good."
Dr. Strickland says there are two groups of patients who make good candidates for this new minimally invasive procedure. One is young people who seem to be healthy but suffer a stroke and find out they have a hole in their heart and secondly, people with larger defects where blood from both sides of the heart mix, causing shortness of breath. Dr. Strickland says, "It's much less invasive for the patient. The recovery time is much less. The complication rate is much lower so it is without a doubt the procedure of choice if the patient qualifies."
Dr. Strickland is the only Interventional Cardiologist doing this procedure right now but others are training. In the past three months, he has used this new procedure to mend the hearts of 20 patients. If you'd like to know more about this new way to mend broken hearts, you can follow this link to Huntsville Hospital's web site.
We recently caught up with Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Warren Strickland as he was telling one of his patients, Linda Burttram of Huntsville, "Once we get the tube in and we get the hole fixed, we'll bring you back over here, take the tube out of your leg and tomorrow, you'll be home." Linda was about to undergo a new procedure to fix her heart.
Dr. Strickland found a problem after learning that Linda had suffered a stroke nine years ago. Linda told us, "They did the scope to look at the back of my heart and said that I had a substantial hole in my heart so we talked about it and he suggested that he does this procedure to repair the hole."
Linda's one of those one in four people who has a hole in their heart. Dr. Strickland says, "It's a congenital defect. In other words, it's something that we're born with. It's just an error of development that causes the septum to not completely develop and in the great majority of patients, they're not a problem but in some patients because of the size of the hole and the location of the hole, it can have catastrophic consequences."
Before that happens, Dr. Strickland and his team from the Huntsville Hospital Heart Center will do a procedure to close the opening. Linda says, " It's just so wonderful to know that you can go through this procedure and not have to go through the extensive open heart surgery." And the best news is she gets to go home the next day.
Instead of cracking her check and doing open heart surgery, Dr. Strickland repairs the heart by making an incision in Linda's leg and using a catheter in a vein to get to the hole and plug the problem. He uses a device that looks like one of those little umbrellas you see in a drink but on a much smaller scale and much more high tech. Dr. Strickland explains, " We cross the defect on one side of the wall. Then we deploy one disc. We pull it against the wall. Then we deploy the other and it seals the hole. That's how it works."
Before this major breakthrough in medical technology, patients had to undergo major surgery to get the same results. Dr. Strickland adds, "It was a big procedure. We're talking about open heart surgery to fix asd's or pfo's. Now, we can go through the vein in the leg and it's an hour procedure."
A balloon is inserted into Linda's heart to find the hole and to determine just how big it is. It was about half the diameter of a dime. Once the device was deployed to seal the opening, it was put into place and in 3 to 6 months, Dr. Strickland tells us, "The lining of the heart itself, grows over the device and really, only aspirin is required for the patient then."
Linda spends one night in the hospital and goes home the next day. And 48 hours after the procedure, she resumes her normal activities. Linda had the procedure on Wednesday and was back at work on Monday. She says she feels "absolutely wonderful" and when asked if she notices a difference, she says, "Oh yes, I don't remember ever feeling this good."
Dr. Strickland says there are two groups of patients who make good candidates for this new minimally invasive procedure. One is young people who seem to be healthy but suffer a stroke and find out they have a hole in their heart and secondly, people with larger defects where blood from both sides of the heart mix, causing shortness of breath. Dr. Strickland says, "It's much less invasive for the patient. The recovery time is much less. The complication rate is much lower so it is without a doubt the procedure of choice if the patient qualifies."
Dr. Strickland is the only Interventional Cardiologist doing this procedure right now but others are training. In the past three months, he has used this new procedure to mend the hearts of 20 patients. If you'd like to know more about this new way to mend broken hearts, you can follow this link to Huntsville Hospital's web site.
