Surgeons at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center in Houston were among the first in the U.S. to implant a new, less-invasive stent graft designed to reduce the risk of blood clots in patients treated for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which affects as many as 12 million Americans over the age of 50.
The new graft, approved for use in the U.S. this month, is the first vascular stent graft available in the U.S. that has a blood-thinner bonded to its surface to prevent clotting long-term. It is also the only device of its kind to be implanted via a minimally-invasive, catheter-based procedure rather than requiring open surgery.
“Because the blood-thinning drug, Heparin, stays on the stent graft, rather than flowing out into the blood stream, this stent graft prevents blood clots from forming,” said Dr. Alan B. Lumsden, M.D., vascular surgeon at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center, who performed the procedure. “The procedure involves bypassing the clogged artery to create a new route blood can take to feed the patients' legs.”
Lumsden was also involved in early studies of heparin-bonded grafts, which showed a major improvement in the performance of grafts bonded with heparin compared to bare stents.
Dr. Lumsden's team, including Dr. Eric Peden, has now implanted this device in several patients with PAD.