New Tech in Vascular Care treats May-Thurner Syndrome with Ease
CHATTANOOGA, TN – The month of May has many celebrations and causes, but one you may not have heard about is the awareness for May-Thurner Syndrome. Named for Dr. May and Dr. Thurner who discovered the condition in 1957, it is a condition where the left iliac artery is compressed by the right common artery. The World Famous Dr. Lesar of the Vascular institute is here to show us how they’re using some new tech in treatment that is light years beyond where we started in 1957.
According to Dr. Lesar “May-Thurner Syndrome is a condition where a vein is pinched or compressed inside the abdomen. And the way the body works is blood flows from the heart in the artery to your toes. The veins take the blood back. If the vein is pinched, patients will have chronic swelling or they’ll complain of pain, pressure, heaviness, aching this in their legs and often goes undiagnosed. If we don’t chase after this and try to figure this out.”
According to Dr. Lesar, Leg pain and swelling is not normal. Heaviness, achiness, and pressure or swelling that is unexplained could be more serious. As we age, we as humans tend to think an aspirin will take care of it, or maybe a little bit of rest. But Dr. Lesar encourages you to visit your local physician if you have any of these symptoms that you can’t explain.
Dr. Lesar and company treat the most severe cases with Venovo stents and while they felt like they were huge holding them in my hands, the good doctor said it’s not as bad as it seems. The less serious cases can be treated with regular diet and exercise.
“It’s it is a minimally invasive procedure,” says Dr. Lesar. “We do that through a small needle. They don’t go in this this big. They are very small. Like in size of a pencil. You can slide them into the vein and actually deploy the stent inside the vein in patients that have severe problems. Now this is someone that has a pain out of, you know, ten not 8 or 9 out of ten, on a daily basis. Or they have severe swelling in the lower extremities, someone that has a severe condition. We can actually use the stents to fix that problem. Other patients that are having mild symptoms, we can talk about moving and walking. And you know, you can’t stand for long periods or sit for long periods if you have that condition. So there’s other ways to manage it other than just a stent.”
While years before his time, vascular surgery was only seen in science fiction movies now it’s almost a day procedure. The doctor said the total down time is about three hours from check in to check out with an hour being reserved for the procedure and an hour to recover. Most of his patients walk out the front door already feeling the effects of the surgery with pain subsiding and the side effects are a memory in the operating room.
