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Biotech / Medical : PLC Systems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark J Trudeau who wrote (610)	4/17/1998 8:56:00 PM
From: nelli	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1202

Good news from the Yahoo thread: Friday April 17 1:45 PM EDT Heart laser surgery replaces transplants UPI Science News CHICAGO, April 17 (UPI) _ Laser surgery may replace or delay heart transplants for some patients with severe coronary artery disease. Temple University Hospital surgeons are reporting an 85-percent survival rate in the year following the operation. And Milwaukee researchers have 30 patients who have survived five years without chest pain. Researchers presented their findings Friday at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Meeting in Chicago. Dr. Mahmood Mirhoseini (MAH-mud Mere-hoe-seen-nee), a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon at the Heart & Lung Institute of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, has used the heart laser on 212 patients. More than 85 percent of them were freed from the severe chest pains that accompany coronary artery disease. ''Transplant clinics should look at this for patients with chest pains, which means the heart muscle is still viable,'' said Mirhoseini, who invented the procedure in 1969. ''It's hard to say yet what happens long term to patients, but we have 30 patients who had the procedure five years ago and are free of chest pain.'' Dr. Valluvan Jeevanandam (''VALUE van Jee van an dam''), surgical director of the heart transplantation program at Temple University Hospital, says the technique compares very well with transplantation, and is less expensive. ''With our technique, we saw an 85 percent survival rate in the year following the operation,'' Jeevanandam says. He said laser surgery could save patients with severe disease who are waiting for a heart transplant. About 200,000 people suffer from end-stage coronary artery disease, and the number is growing by 20 percent a year. Many of these people cannot have bypass surgery or angioplasty because their arteries are too damaged, so they are heart transplant candidates, he said. With the shortage of available organs, some 20 percent to 50 percent of patients may die while waiting for a heart, he said. Heart laser surgery, also known as transmyocardial revascularization, uses a carbon dioxide laser to create as many as 50 tiny holes in the left ventricle of the heart. This improves blood flow to oxygen-starved heart muscle. The procedure is done by making a three-inch (7.62-centimeter) incision between the ribs just below the left nipple, and inserting the high-powered laser. By comparison, heart transplants require a large vertical incision down the chest to crack open the entire rib cage. Patients also must take drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent organ rejection. Those drugs often have severe side effects. Jeevanandam estimates the laser surgery will cost $25,000. A heart transplant, including the drugs, costs about $150,000-$200,000. Most insurance companies still don't cover the procedure, because it is considered experimental. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will review an application to approve the procedure from the laser's maker, PLC Ltd. of Franklin, Mass., on April 24. That application includes data from Jeevanandam, who used it on 15 patients from October 1996 to October 1997. The heart laser is being used experimentally in more than 20 centers in the United States. (Written by Lori Valigra in Cambridge, Mass.) _- Copyright 1998 by United Press International All rights reserved _-