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Wheeling Hospital has become the region's first facility to offer a new stroke risk reduction therapy for patients with atrial fibrillation.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, officials said the procedure -- implantation of a WATCHMAN device -- helps patients who cannot tolerate lifelong use of the blood thinner warfarin.
Nurse practitioner Crystal Pietranton said five implants have been performed at Wheeling Hospital since last month.
"It went very well," she said. "We have had a lot of great success. We have a ton of patients ready to work up."
Use of the left atrial appendage occlusion device "has been shown to be very effective and safe," said Dr. Triston Smith, an interventional cardiologist and clinical director of the hospital's structural heart program. "It is a very elegant device and a very elegant procedure."
Interventional cardiologist Dr. Gregory Suero also views this procedure as "a huge, groundbreaking step." He said the permanent device offers "perfect protection" for AF patients who are at high risk for stroke, but can't tolerate blood thinners.
A patient who has had a stroke "is a perfect and ideal candidate for this procedure," Smith said. He added that the device comes in five sizes to accommodate the dimensions of an individual patient's left atrial appendage.
Asked about the device's longevity, Smith said, "We think it will last for the lifespan of the patient."
"Once the device is put in place, the body will make it its own … It becomes part of the patient," Suero said. "There is very low risk of rejection or of the body attacking the device."
Interventional cardiologist Dr. Deepak Hooda said testing is done 45 days after implantation to ensure that the device is working properly.
Pietranton said prospective patients are evaluated at the Wheeling Hospital Heart and Vascular Center. After the procedure is performed, a patient will have multiple follow-up visits for a two-year period, she said.
The device is about the diameter of a quarter and resembles a parachute. It is implanted through a catheter placed in the femoral vein in the upper thigh. Under X-ray and echocardiography guidance, the physician then places the device in the appropriate area in the heart, closing off the left atrial appendage.
This procedure is done under general anesthesia in the catheterization lab and takes about an hour. Patients normally remain in the hospital overnight and are discharged the next day.
The WATCHMAN device, manufactured by Boston Scientific, has been implanted in more than 50,000 patients worldwide. Company officials said the procedure has a 95.6 percent success rate.
It is estimated that 33 million people have atrial fibrillation in the United States. Patients with this condition, not caused by a heart valve problem, have a five times greater risk of stroke than those with normal heart rhythms.
Atrial fibrillation, commonly known as irregular heartbeat, occurs when the upper chambers of the heart beat in a chaotic and sometimes fast manner. This leads to incomplete emptying of the top chambers and stagnation of blood in the left atrial appendage, where clots are prone to form. Traditional treatment included placing the patient on a blood thinner to decrease the stroke risk.
However, Smith said, "Clinical trial and registry data clearly show that there is a subset of patients with atrial fibrillation in whom warfarin use is associated with an increased risk of bleeding. In fact, many patients with AF are not treated with a blood thinner because of the fear of bleeding."
According to Boston Scientific data, implantation of a WATCHMAN device significantly lowers the bleeding risk, with improvement of 51 percent in seven days and 72 percent six months later.