DVT: Removing Deadly Filters -- Research Summary | Medical News and Health Information

“DVT: Removing Deadly Filters” covers the topic of how a filter doctors implanted in the past to prevent deep vein thrombosis clots from traveling to the lungs has proven to be dangerous, and what they’re now doing about it. See how Dr. William T. Kuo from Stanford University Medical Center uses a procedure he pioneered that employs laser technology to remove the filters without any damage to the patient’s vessels.

DVT: Removing Deadly Filters -- Research Summary

BACKGROUND: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot that forms in a vein deep in the body. The clots occur when blood thickens and clumps together. Most deep vein blood clots occur in the lower leg or thigh. They can also occur in other parts of the body. A blood clot in a deep vein can break off and travel through the bloodstream. When the clot travels to the lungs and blocks blood flow, the condition is called pulmonary embolism (PE). PE can cause damage to the lungs and other or organs. It can also lead to death. (SOURCE: National Institutes of Health)

ONE PATIENT'S STORY: Susan Karnstedt was diagnosed with a life-threatening PE in 1992. A blood clot had formed in a vein in her pelvis and had traveled to her lungs. Doctors inserted a device, known as a Greenfield Filter, into her inferior vena cava, which is the large vein that carries deoxygenated blood from the lower half of the body to the heart. The metallic filter looks like an umbrella frame with multiple spidery legs. The permanent device was designed to catch a blood clot before it traveled to Susan's lungs. However, the filter had formed scar tissue around Susan's vein and was poking through her intestines. Susan was experiencing extreme abdominal pain.

REMOVING FILTERS: Most doctors wouldn't consider removing the permanent filter, but Susan was referred to interventional radiologist William Kuo, M.D., from Stanford Hospitals and Clinics. His team is the first in the world to apply endovascular laser technology to successfully retrieve permanent filters. Using real-time X-ray fluoroscopy to guide him, Dr. Kuo made a 4-millimeter incision in Susan's neck, inserted a catheter into her jugular vein and guided it toward the filter in her vena cava. He then formed a special wire loop through the embedded filter and carefully began to realign it. Kuo advanced a special endovascular laser around the legs of the filter and used this to carefully ablate the adherent tissues tethering the filter in place. He separated scar tissue that had formed around the filter for 18 years. He was able to free, collapse and completely remove the filter without damaging the underlying vena cava. Susan did not require any stitches; she only needed a Band-aid on her neck site. (SOURCE: Stanford Hospitals & Clinics Press Release) MORE>>see below

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Stanford Hospitals & Clinics
Department of Radiology
(650) 724-7362
http://stanfordhospital.org/interventionalradiology

DVT: Removing Deadly Filters -- Research Summary | Medical News and Health Information