First in Midwest to use newly approved Watchman left atrial appendage
closure device
Cardiologists
at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak have performed the Midwest’s first commercial
implant of a device recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for
patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. The Watchman Left Atrial
Appendage Closure implant is an alternative to long-term use of blood-thinning
warfarin medication to reduce the risk of stroke.
(from left to right) Cardiology fellow Frances
Wood,
M.D.; Steven Almany, M.D., and George Hanzel, M.D.
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Atrial fibrillation is
the most common heart rhythm disorder affecting more than 5 million Americans.
Twenty percent of all strokes occur in patients with AF. The most common
treatment to reduce their stroke risk is blood-thinning warfarin medication.
Warfarin is not well tolerated by some patients and has a significant risk for
bleeding complications. As a result, nearly half of those eligible for warfarin
therapy are currently untreated.
“The
Watchman device is an excellent alternative to warfarin for patients who are
not optimal candidate for oral anticoagulation. By closing the left atrial
appendage, the device has been demonstrated to significantly reduce the risk of
death and stroke, compared with warfarin therapy,” says George Hanzel, M.D., director of the Structural
Heart program at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak.
Beaumont cardiologists
have extensive experience with the device and were involved in initial national
clinical trials testing it in 2005 that led to its FDA approval. The recently
published results of these trials showed a 60 percent reduction in
cardiovascular mortality and a 34 percent reduction in all-cause mortality in
patients treated with the device.
”This advanced
technology will be truly life-changing for many atrial fibrillation patients,
freeing them from the dangers of stroke risk, and the daily challenges of
long-term, blood-thinning medications,” says Steven Almany, M.D., principal investigator of the
Watchman trial at Beaumont.
The
Watchman device is about the size of a quarter and shaped like a parachute. It
is implanted into the heart to close off the left atrial appendage, a blind
pouch of heart tissue where blood clots can form and then break off and travel
in the blood stream to the brain and cause strokes. The device is inserted into
the heart through a catheter placed into a vein in the leg during a one-time,
minimally invasive procedure in a cardiac catheterization lab.
The first
commercial implant of the device at Beaumont was performed on March 25. The
patient is a 68-year-old woman from River Rouge.
Developed by
Boston Scientific, the Watchman implant has been approved in Europe since 2005.
It has been implanted in more than 10,000 patients and is approved in more than
70 countries around the world.
About
Beaumont Heart & Vascular
Beaumont,
Royal Oak is recognized among “America’s Best Hospitals” and as Michigan’s
top-ranked hospital for cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. News & World
Report for 2014-15. The Beaumont Heart and Vascular Center is a comprehensive,
state-of-the-art facility that’s dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and
treatment of heart problems.Beaumont’s Ernst Cardiovascular Center offers a
collaborative approach to treating and managing the most complex heart and
vascular conditions, including atrial fibrillation, heart valve disease,
heart failure, aortic aneurysm and dissection. The center also offers low-cost,
preventive heart screening for adults and high school students. Beaumont’s
Ministrelli Women’s Heart Center is the first in Michigan devoted exclusively
to the prevention, diagnosis, and research of heart disease in women. Find out
more at http://www.beaumont.edu/heart/.
Beaumont Health System
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