Patients at risk for a stroke are now able to have a minimally
invasive procedure that is available at only a select group of
hospitals nationwide, including two in North Jersey.
Physicians at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and The
Valley Hospital in Ridgewood are fixing a section of the heart in
patients with an abnormal heart rhythm, called atrial fibrillation.
Patients with this condition have a rapid and irregular heartbeat
that may cause serious complications such as stroke, heart failure
and early death.
During the procedure, which can sometimes be done on an
outpatient basis, cardiologists tie off the heart's left atrial
appendage, the LAA, a thumb-shaped pouch that sometimes fails to
contract with the rest of the heart.
Blood then pools and clots inside the appendage and can
eventually break loose and travel to the brain, causing a stroke.
Doctors use a newly approved suturing device, known as the
Lariat, to perform the procedure, which involves inserting a
catheter under the rib cage to the sac around the heart while
another catheter is sent through a blood vessel from the groin into
the heart.
"The Lariat device works as a lasso," explained Dr. Grant Simons,
chief of cardiac electrophysiology at Englewood. "Once our catheters
are in place, we are able to guide the Lariat through a needle
puncture in the skin to the LAA, eliminating the need for open-
heart surgery. Once in place, we loop the Lariat around the pouch
and tie it off, which ultimately blocks blood supply to the LAA and
stops clots from traveling to the brain."
The procedure causes less pain and allows a much faster recovery
than other procedures used to treat atrial fibrillation.
It does not require a follow-up surgery and specifically benefits
patients unable to tolerate blood thinners.
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