News Releases
Cardiology Program at Memorial Hermann Southeast Expands With Carotid Stenting,
Heart-attack Care
Houston, Texas, November 13, 2006 – Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital continues expanding its interventional cardiology program, recently adding capabilities for treating carotid artery blockages and heart attacks.
"Because of these new capabilities, ambulances can now bring patients with severe chest pains or irregular heart beats to our emergency center," said Jeff Scoggins, director of cardiology. "We can treat many of these patients onsite through interventional cardiology procedures. We are set to treat patients in our catheterization lab quickly following arrival to our emergency center at any time of the day or night."
One powerful capability that has been added to the hospital’s two new state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization labs is carotid stenting, a procedure that can help prevent life-threatening strokes by treating blockages in the arteries that carry blood to the brain.
Traditionally, physicians treat severe carotid artery disease by surgically removing plaque and diseased portions of the artery. A newer approach, carotid stenting, enables treatment from inside the vessels by cardiologists, vascular surgeons or interventional radiologists.
Physicians make a small incision in the patient’s groin and insert a tube, or catheter, into the large femoral artery. The tube is then threaded through the body’s vascular system to the carotid artery, where an inflated balloon compresses the plaque and widens the arterial passage. A wire, mesh-covered stent to is then placed to keep the artery open.
"Strokes can occur when small blood clots form in the carotid arteries, or when pieces of plaque break away. Either can travel into the brain and block the blood supply to parts of it," said cardiology medical director Surendra K. Jain, M.D. "In other cases, larger clots formed elsewhere in the body reach the narrowed carotid arteries, obstructing blood flow."
As a part of its expanded cardiovascular program, the hospital also has established a chest pain observation unit where patients undergo expedited blood and stress tests to determine whether they are having heart problems.
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