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Katherine Sims
Marketing Director
Denton Regional Medical Center
940-384-3251
Denton Regional Medical Center is first in county to offer carotid artery stenting
Procedure provides hope for some of the area’s sickest patients
After surviving open-heart surgery in 1997, Rhonda Gill thought she was destined for yet another long, painful hospital stay and recovery when physicians informed recently her that another procedure was necessary to treat her carotid artery disease. But, this time, the 60-year-old Denton resident was pleasantly surprised.
“I spent one night in Denton Regional Medical Center and was able to come home the next day,” Gill said. “Within a few days, I was feeling better than I had in a long time.”
And Gill is a medical pioneer of sorts, becoming one of Denton Regional’s first patients to undergo a relatively rare, minimally invasive stenting technique for treating carotid artery blockages. Denton Regional is the only Denton County medical facility offering the technique and Dr. Gary P. Fazio, a cadiologist with The Denton Heart Group, is the county’s only physician trained to perform the procedure.
The Food and Drug Administration-approved procedure, which employs a flexible, metal-mesh tube---commonly called a stent--- and a filtering device to prevent dislodged plaque particles from traveling to the brain, is used to mitigate artery blockages in cases where there aren’t other good surgical options for patients. Carotid artery disease, characterized by a build up of plaque along the inner walls of the carotid arteries in the neck, inhibits the flow of oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the brain.
Dr. Fazio, who has performed the minimally invasive technique on six patients so far this year, said the stent is inserted through a small incision in the patient’s groin area and then advanced through the arterial system on a catheter until it’s positioned at the site of the blockage. The stent then props open the artery wall, allowing blood flow to resume unimpeded.
“This is the best option for some of our sickest, high risk patients who have significant carotid artery disease,” Fazio said. “The hospital stay is usually less than 24 hours followed by a post-op visit in my office three to seven days later.”
By comparison, traditional surgery---called carotid endarterectomy---is usually performed under general anesthesia, and requires an incision in the patient’s neck. Recovery is generally more prolonged and painful with carotid endarterectomy.
Only a handful of Dallas-Fort Worth hospitals offer the carotid stenting procedure. But Dr Fazio expects more hospitals to offer the minimally invasive stent option as more physicians are trained. Medicare currently allows symptomatic patients with carotid artery blockages to undergo stenting if they are at prohibitively high risk for traditional surgery. Dr Fazio expects that Medicare will liberalize restrictions on carotid stenting, allowing many more patients to take advantage of this cutting edge technology.
“If it wasn’t for this procedure, I wouldn’t be here,” said Gill, who is recovering nicely and now visits her regular physician every six months.
Left untreated, carotid artery disease itself may lead to stroke, the third leading cause of death in the United States and the number one cause of disability in adults, according to the American Heart Association. About 25 percent of strokes are caused by carotid artery disease. More than 700,000 Americans have new or recurrent strokes each year, and more than 150,000 are expected to die.
“I would expect the use of these stents to expand dramatically in the next few years as more physicians embrace the technology,” Dr. Fazio said.
About Denton Regional
Denton Regional is a 208 bed, full service hospital that serves the growing population of Denton, Wise, Cooke and Montague Counties. Offering the full-spectrum of healthcare including advanced open-heart surgery and oncology programs, Denton Regional's more than 850 employees and 250 physicians are constantly striving to offer the highest quality service to north Texas.
Denton Regional is part of the HCA North Texas Division Hospitals which includes 12 hospitals and related health-care entities serving North Texas and surrounding areas. To learn more about this hospital and others in the division, visit www.hcahealthcare.com and www.dentonregional.com. For more information, please contact Denton Regional Marketing at 940-384-3251.
About HCA
The mission of HCA is not only to provide quality health services, but also to be an agent for healing throughout the communities we serve. HCA hospital and facility employees join as caring teams to make a difference in local communities throughout the United States. Above all else, HCA is committed to the care and improvement of human life. Caring for patients is only part of what we do at HCA. We also are dedicated to building stronger, healthier communities through outreach and philanthropy by working in partnership with our employees to serve effective non-profit organizations.