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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Houma doctor led a presentation to doctors around the world last week on two surgeries conducted via live video in two different countries.
Dr. Craig Walker, head of the Cardiovascular Institute of the South, highlighted two cases in which Italian and German surgeons used new techniques to clear complete blockages in leg arteries.
His presentation came during the general session of the 2016 New Cardiovascular Horizons Conference, an annual conference he founded several years ago.
Instead of amputation, surgeons insert a catheter guide wire through a small cut in the groin and move it through the arteries and veins to the site of the infection.
The surgeries were streamed in real time from operating rooms in Abano Terme, Italy, and Bad Krozingen, Germany, to a conference room at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. Hundreds of medical professionals around the U.S. and the globe witnessed the procedures.
"We are bringing cases from all over the world showcasing new techniques and new technologies that exist for treating peripheral disease," Walker said.
In the U.S., more than 20 million people are estimated to have peripheral disease of the arteries, he noted.
Common symptoms include leg or hip pain while walking or cramping in the lower extremities, signs that could be easily mistaken for another condition. The disease typically affects arteries in the legs.
"People with peripheral disease have very high death rates from heart attacks and stroke, not from just the legs, but from the fact that when you have blockages in the legs, you often have them elsewhere," Walker said.
People who are older, smoke or have diabetes are at higher risk, he added.
"We're overweight. We have more diabetes than other parts of the world," Walker said. "In addition to that, we're not always very good about prevention. We don't exercise very well, and often in south Louisiana, we ignore our symptoms."
Peripheral arterial disease occurs when plaque made up of fat, cholesterol and other substances builds up in major arteries. This limits blood flow to vital organs and the limbs and in severe cases can lead to gangrene in the legs and eventually require amputation.
New catheter guide wire technology is an option for patients who are too sick or have poor blood flow in their legs and therefore cannot be operated upon, Walker said. It also minimizes the need for amputation.
"If you cut the leg off with someone like that, life expectancy falls, it's terribly morbid, it's more costly and it's immediately associated with a high risk of death," he added. "So there are a lot of reasons that this is important, and not just because it's less painful."
Nearly half of those who have a leg amputated due to vascular disease will die within five years, according to the Amputee Coalition of America.
In a 2008 Medicare study, areas of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas reported the highest rates of amputation due to diabetes, with seven to eight per 1,000 individuals. The national average for the same year is 4.5 per 1,000 people.
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Information from: The Courier, http://www.houmatoday.com
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