Orbital Atherectomy and what that means for National Kidney Month
CHATTANOOGA, TN – March is known for many things and among the madness that it always brings, it’s known for National Kidney Awareness Month. Somewhere around 30 million Americans have various kidney diseases and disfunctions but are unaware of it until the symptoms progress. The second Thursday in March is known as National Kidney Day with numerous organizations helping to raise awareness in children and adults.
Dr. Chris LeSar of the Vascular Institute of Chattanooga hosted us this week to talk about a treatment they use called Orbital Atherectomy and how it helps with Kidney Function and other things that lead to Peripheral Arterial Disease.
“Orbital atherectomy is, a device that we use or a technique that we use to sand or grind away the plaques that build up inside arteries. And by gently sanding the plaque away and preventing damage to the rest of the artery, we can establish more blood flow into a patient’s leg to help them heal the wound or have more circulation to walk better,” says Dr. LeSar.
It sounds like a lot, but it’s a minimally invasive procedure. They do it thru outpatient surgery so this particular patient they used a catheter to go into the vein in her ankle and open up the blockage with minimal down time. The patient was there a total of three hours, from check in to check out and should be able to start walking again by the end of the day.
“We do this from the small ankle artery. So that’s where we put the needle. And we can treat that way. So people can walk pretty much within an hour and, and get out and do most normal things. Now, the people that we would use this device on are people that have diabetes or high blood pressure, high cholesterol smokers or a family history of artery disease,” says LeSar. “So, by, finding those patients with problems with their legs, if they have flow problems in their legs. And that’s very simple for feeling a pain in your legs. L, for loss of sensation in your legs. O, for an open sore wound that doesn’t heal or weakness when walking. If you have a ‘FLOW’ problem, you might need to come and see a specialist about fixing your arteries and getting this repaired.”
