KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -
The University of Kansas Hospital is pioneering using in cardiac surgeries the same technology that gives you directions to your doctor's office.
The new GPS device allows the patient to receive less radiation and provides a safer way for patients to have heart procedures. This is the first time the technology, called Medi-Guide, has been used in the United States in heart surgeries.
Before this new development, physicians would need to use live fluoroscopy, a rapid series of X-ray images that are taken throughout the course of the procedure, to capture images during heart procedures exposing the patient to some level of radiation.
"That X-Ray can have long-term impacts on patients and can lead to increased risks of cancer over the course of many years," said Dr. Loren Berenbom, the hospital's director.
But now, using miniature sensors attached to a small tube, doctors can pinpoint the location of the catheter within seconds, and it shows the route to take to get to the damaged part of the heart. Doctors no longer need the X-Ray machine to be run continuously.
Physicians were amazed at how much less radiation the procedure used.
University of Kansas Hospital cardiologists traveled to Germany where doctors had been using the technology. And upon return, they performed the first surgery using the technology on 53-year-old heart patient Sarah Howard last week.
Howard said she was initially excited about receiving less radiation.
"When I found out I was going to be the first one in the country, I was really excited about that," she said.
Her surgery went well and she is now exercising on the treadmill.
"The rule for radiation safety is ALARA, as low as reasonable achievable. Less radiation is always safer, less radiation is always better," said Berenbom, director of the Richard and Annette Bloch Heart Rhythm Center at the hospital.
Dr. Dhanunjaya (DJ) Lakkireddy, an electrophysiologist who leads the complex arrhythmia ablation program at the University of Kansas Hospital, said Howard's procedure would typically have taken anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes of fluoroscopy.
"We were able to upload the extra connection and get rid of that arrhythmia using less than four minutes of fluoroscopy. Typically a procedure like hers would have taken 15 to 20 minutes of fluoroscopy. That means we reduced the amount of radiation by 75 percent," he said.
The technology originated in Israel, and spread to Europe where it's been used widely. Physicians at the University of Kansas Hospital went to Europe for training, and thus far, have performed about seven surgeries.
The hospital thus far is absorbing most of the costs for the device, so patients aren't likely to see an increase in their medical bills.
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