St. John Hospital & Medical Center 1st in U.S. to Treat High Risk Patient with New Heart Stent and Pump

DETROIT, June 2, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Heart care experts at St. John Hospital & Medical Center (SJH&MC) are the first in the country to treat a high risk patient with the use of a heart pump and newly approved heart stent technology. The procedure was performed by SJH&MC cardiologist, Antonious Attallah, M.D.

The new technology is a heart stent known as the Tryton Side Branch Stent. It's specifically designed to open arteries with a buildup of plaque at a site where one artery branches from another, also known as a bifurcation. SJH&MC cardiologist, Antonious Attallah, M.D. was the first in the U.S. to utilize this new stent technology to treat a high-risk patient along with the use of the Impella heart pump during the procedure.

Coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. in both men and women, often results in the buildup of plaque at a site where one artery branches from another, also known as a bifurcation. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of all patients undergoing balloon angioplasty to open blocked arteries have a bifurcation lesion. Provisional stenting of the main branch is the current standard of care, but in many cases the side branch is not stented, leaving it vulnerable to complications like occlusion requiring bailout stenting.

The Tryton Side Branch Stent is engineered to provide complete lesion coverage and more predictable patient outcomes. It is deployed in the side branch artery using a standard single wire balloon-expandable stent delivery system. A conventional drug eluting stent is then placed in the main vessel.

It is often useful to think of the heart arteries like a tree with branches. At the site where a side-branch vessel comes off of the main coronary artery, plaque and fatty build-up are more likely to develop because of forces related to changes in blood flow.

"Stenosis, or narrowing, located in a main coronary artery and an adjoining side-branch vessel is called a bifurcation blockage or bifurcation lesion," according to Dr. Attallah. "Bifurcation blockages are somewhat more challenging for cardiac interventionalists to treat than blockages that do not involve side-branch vessels, because current stents do not come in a "Y" configuration."

In February 2017, the Tryton Side Branch Stent became the first dedicated bifurcation stent to receive regulatory approval in the U.S. It is manufactured by Tryton Medical and distributed by Cordis.

St. John Hospital & Medical Center is part of the St. John Providence Health Heart & Vascular Center of Excellence, a leading provider of heart and vascular care in Michigan. SJH&MC, which is a ministry of Ascension, is a nationally recognized leader in cardiovascular care.

About Ascension Michigan

In Michigan, Ascension operates 15 hospitals and hundreds of related healthcare facilities that together employ more than 27,000 associates. Across the state, Ascension provided more than $250 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2016. Serving Michigan for over 170 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world's largest Catholic health system, operating 2,500 sites of care – including 141 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities – in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Visit www.ascension.org/michigan.

SOURCE St. John Hospital & Medical Center

Related Links

http://www.ascension.org/michigan