Wheeling Hospital Puts New Team In Place To Treat Pulmonary Embolisms
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WHEELING -- More people in the United States die each year from pulmonary embolisms than heart attacks, according to Dr. Victor Maevsky, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Wheeling Hospital.
In response to that statistic, Wheeling Hospital has developed and put into place a pulmonary embolism response team, referred to as PERT. This team of hospital physicians and support staff spent months studying the best avenue to assess and treat patients who suffer from this "silent killer," said Dr. Gregory Suero, an interventional cardiologist, during a press conference held Monday at the hospital.
The on-call PERT will respond to a pulmonary embolism at any hour, day or night. The team also has written a more in-depth protocol for diagnosing a pulmonary embolism.
Suero said hospital management listened to the doctors' needs and ideas for saving more lives and purchased the EkoSonic Endovascular System. He said the system is the latest innovation for treating a PE.
With this machine, a physician can introduce a catheter into the femoral or jugular vein and maneuver it into place near the clot. There, it delivers high frequency ultrasound that breaks up the clot while simultaneously delivering medicines to treat the affected area and restore blood flow to the lungs. This procedure is in addition to the typical treatment of using blood-clotting medicine alone.
"A PE is a blood clot that occurs in pulmonary arteries, which bring blood to the lungs," Suero said. "It can damage part of the lung due to restricted blood flow, decrease oxygen levels in the blood and affect other organs. Large or multiple blood clots can be fatal."
Suero and Maevsky, along with interventional cardiologists Dr. Triston Smith and Dr. Deepak Hooda, agree the PERT team is a leg up in assessing and treating PE patients.
They all believe the team effort will result in quicker diagnosis and care for patients suffering from this ailment.
"We have a team for heart disease and this works very well," Suero said. "We're steering away from a one-man show/physician to the concept of a team for everything."
The process has been used in one patient to date with a successful outcome, Suero said.
Maevsky said the use of the EkoSonic Endovascular System will decrease the effects of a pulmonary embolism in patients who are already on blood thinners.
The PERT team's assessment protocol is used most often in the emergency room where PE patients likely come when feeling ill. The assessment procedures also are being distributed to local first responders in the field. Wheeling Hospital hopes to get the word out to other medical facilities and physicians that patients do not have to be transferred out of the area for this type of treatment.
Triston said doctors have felt helpless at times, especially when losing a young person to a PE.
"A lot of lives will be saved with this," Triston said. "You will get the best, first-class technology … Our hearts are in it."