Webcast Spotlights Minimally Invasive Treatment for Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm

DAVENPORT, Iowa – Surgeons at Genesis Medical Center, Davenport, will use a minimally invasive approach and a revolutionary device to treat a thoracic aortic aneurysm during a surgical procedure that will be webcast Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m.

Richard Sadler, M.D., FACS, Chest & Vascular Surgery, P.C., Davenport, will perform the procedure, one of fewer than 10 that have been done in the state of Iowa.  He will be assisted by Erik Abdullah, M.D., Vascular & Thoracic Associates, Ltd., Bettendorf, Iowa.  It will be the third Genesis Medical Center webcast.
 
The surgery can be viewed from the home page of the award-winning Genesis Health System Internet site, www.genesishealth.com, by clicking on “Watch a Surgery,” in the rotating ad box.  Genesis is one of at least 40 hospitals across the nation working with Internet health care broadcaster slp3D, a Connecticut company pioneering surgical webcasts.

A thoracic aortic aneurysm is the swelling or ballooning of the aorta, the largest artery in the body, which carries oxygenated blood from the heart. The thoracic aorta’s diameter normally ranges from 1 to 1.5 inches.  An aneurysm can cause it to grow several times its normal size.  If not treated, the aneurysm can rupture, leading to internal bleeding which often is fatal.

“The estimated mortality of a ruptured thoracic aneurysm is 90 percent for the first 48 hours,” said Dr. Sadler.  “Often, there are no symptoms, so most people won’t know if they have an aortic aneurysm until it ruptures. Typically, they are detected when chest x-rays, CT scans or MRI tests are being obtained for other health problems.  Approximately 40 percent of aneurysms in the aorta occur in the chest.”

Thoracic aortic aneurysms have traditionally been repaired through a high-risk operation requiring a large chest incision to remove the diseased portion of the artery and replace it with a synthetic graft.  This method can result in long hospital stays and painful recoveries.  However, an implantable graft now gives doctors a less-invasive alternative to the major open surgical approach.

Assisting Drs. Sadler and Abdullah during the procedure are: Paula Streed, RN First Assist, CNOR; Kelly Heppe, RN; Sheila Hoskins, RN, CNOR; Rose Cuevas, CST; and Barb Tobias, RTR, Cardiovascular Imaging Specialist.

OR-Live.com, slp3d’s Web portal, will host the webcast. OR-Live is the Web’s largest source of live and on-demand surgical video from leading hospitals and academic institutions.  Its Web site attracts an average of nearly 500,000 unique visitors each month.  Audiences come from all 50 states as well as from nearly 200 countries in North America, Central and South American, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Previous Genesis webcasts have spotlighted minimally-invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion to eliminate back pain, and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, a surgical procedure for weight loss.

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