Coil System Helps Repair Leak in Heart Artery

The procedure, performed by Dr. Alexander Javois, was observed via live telecast by surgeons attending the 3rd World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Toronto (Canada).

The pediatric patient had fistulas in a heart artery, which allowed oxygenated, red blood to mix with blue blood, which contains no oxygen. Open-heart surgery is usually required to correct this problem. Instead, Dr. Javois pushed a catheter through a tiny incision made in the child's groin and threaded the coiling device, attached to a delivery wire, through the catheter and into the coronary artery where the fistulas were located. Once the coil was in place, an electrical current was passed through the coil, releasing it from the delivery wire and allowing it to seal off the fistulas.

The procedure will reduce the pain, scarring, and healing time the patient would have endured with open-heart surgery. Called the GDC SynerG Detatchable Coil System, the device was originally designed by Boston Scientific and Target Therapeutics to seal off aneurysms in the brain.

"What makes this procedure so unique is that we are using this device on a very young patient for a purpose other than what it was originally designed to do,” said Dr. Javois. "Because toddlers have small arteries, we need control over the precise placement of the coil. This is a very technically challenging procedure.”




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