Summary: With modern medicine changing by the day, further discoveries are being made. Scientists have recently found various methods to help patients suffering from cardiac issues without having to undergo invasive surgery. Many surgeons will now use tiny tubes tools and devices that are pushed through blood vessels. Ailments that could only be cured by surgery such as poor heart valves, heart rhythm problems, heart defects, clogged arteries, and high blood pressure can now be fixed with this technology. The whole operation relies on the hollow tubes, called catheters, which allow doctors get into the heart, reshape the heart's tissue, and correct defects through small holes in blood vessels. Instead of opening the chest, catheters are now being put into blood vessels either in the leg or arm. This new alternative to invasive heart surgery allows patients to have a much faster recovery time. Instead of having a large gash having to heal, patients will have their catheters taken out and have a one or two day recovery period in the hospital until being sent home. This new method is also rumored to be more inexpensive than surgery by eliminating the cost of housing patients for lengthier rehabilitation times. This new discovery may even help the frail elderly to receive the cardiac correction that they need. Heart surgery would be far too invasive for a frail elderly individual, however now they can receive the medical care they need to live. This new discovery aids surgeons in allowing them more inexpensive, less invasive options to give patients.
Relevance: This article is relevant to our curriculum since we have studied the mammalian heart in chapter 30. The heart is the muscle that pumps oxygen rich blood to every crevice in our bodies and is also the most important vital organ in the human body.We have studied various conditions associated with the heart, and this article describes more modern ways to correct these conditions.
Heart Repair Breakthroughs Could Replace Surgeon's Knife
By: Marilynn Marchione
March 25, 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/heart-repair-surgery-catheters_n_2948745.html
How are the catheters taken out of a patient's body?
ReplyDeleteWhat does the catheter do that "fixes" the heart?
ReplyDeleteThe catheter allows the surgeons a passageway to the heart through blood vessels in the legs or arms. The tools can rest in the hollow catheters without damaging blood vessels.
ReplyDeleteCatheters are gently pulled out of the blood vessel either in the patient's leg or arm.
ReplyDelete