By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Deep vein thrombosis occurs when a blood clot forms in one or more of the deep veins in your body, usually in your legs. Hutchinson Regional Medical Center is treating this differently thanks to new equipment.
"What we have recently acquired is a new system that uses large bore catheters and aspiration to actually directly remove these clots from the circulation without giving clot-dissolving medication," said Dr. Michael Hagley, interventional cardiologist.
Hagley explained that the previous approach had additional risks.
"In the past, we had the option of giving clot dissolving medications directly into the blood clot," Hagley said. "That's an approach that has a lot of risk for bleeding. It has marginal effectiveness, because some of these clots have matured and aren't prone to being dissolved easily. It wasn't always easy and sometimes it seemed like the risk-benefit considerations favored more conservative therapy. The problem, if you treat these conservatively and don't get rid of the blood clot is that some people are prone to developing a lot of swelling and sores in the legs and things of that nature long term as an aftermath. It's difficult to predict up front who will develop those problems and who won't."
The new procedure doesn't take as long, either.
"Patients typically would have to lay on their abdomen," said Aubrey Nuss, director of the Heart and Vascular Center at Hutchinson Regional. "They were uncomfortable. Sometimes it would take up to six hours, where these procedures now are probably about an hour, which is about the same time frame as a heart cath or maybe a little bit longer. For them, it is a much easier procedure with better outcomes."
Hagley said the new treatment has changed the entire paradigm for how deep vein thrombosis should be treated.