With the creation of an angiography catheterization laboratory at Mountain View Hospital in Payson, patients with circulatory problems will be able to have examination and treatment procedures performed closer to home and at a cost savings, says a heart specialist.
The hospital purchased a $1.4 million Arcomax FMA machine in December and now has the equipment operational."The technology is not new, but it is new to Payson and offers health care that hasn't been available here," said Dr. John Frischknecht, cardiologist and medical director for the lab. "It gives Mountain View the ability to provide care for patients that we used to forward to bigger hospitals."
The combination X-ray and video screen machine allows a radiologist or cardiologist to photograph a patient's arteries after they have been highlighted with dye to determine the extent of plaque buildup that may be causing such problems as strokes or heart attacks. The doctor or radiologist also can observe treatment procedures on one video screen as they are being performed, while a second screen shows a still picture of the problem area.
Mountain View remodeled part of its same-day surgery facility to make room for the heart lab. Frischknecht said an average catheter lab performs 400 to 500 such procedures a year; he estimates 150 catheter procedures will be performed this year at Mountain View.
A patient that comes into a hospital complaining of chest pains may be given blood-thinning drugs to prevent a heart blockage from occurring, but such treatment does not eliminate the plaque buildup that is the source of the problem, Frisch-knecht said. With a heart catheter, a doctor can examine a patient's arteries and decide whether surgery, opening of the blockage with a catheter balloon or use of drugs should be used to correct the problem.
In many cases, the catheter examination reveals that the blockage can be eliminated using a catheter balloon, saving a patient from having to undergo open-heart surgery.
"This machine has revolutionized medicine," Frischknecht said. "A patient can be back to work in two days, and the cost is one-fourth that of open-heart surgery."
Heart catheter examination is done on a same-day surgery basis, Frischknecht said.
Dr. Stan Green, radiologist at Mountain View, said the new machine is also being used to repair slipped and herniated disk problems in selected cases, eliminating the need for back surgery. A small instrument on the end of a catheter is used to poke a hole in the disk to relieve pressure on a nerve.
"It's done as an outpatient procedure, and the patient can be back to work in four weeks vs. six months (with back surgery). It allows us to make medicine a lot more economical," Green said. "We think it's pretty neat that our little hospital and Utah Valley are the first to do this type of surgery in Utah."