A patient will have holiday blessings to share thanks to a unique procedure performed for the first time at St. Cloud Hospital.
Orlando Health St. Cloud Hospital reported last week it has performed its first percutaneous pulmonary thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure to remove an embolism—the medical term for an advanced blood clot— from the pulmonary artery.
Barbara Gilbert, 74, of St. Cloud was recently diagnosed as having a six-inch clot in her lung. The cardiac catheterization lab team at the St. Cloud hospital, led by Dr. Prakrut Patel, MD, FACC, used a small needle and catheter, with guidance from X-Ray, to extract the clot.
“Pulmonary embolism is the third leading cause of cardiovascular death, which is why a thrombectomy needs to be performed quickly and efficiently,” Dr. Patel said. “Patients in our community can now receive this crucial treatment at Orlando Health St. Cloud Hospital and possibly recover at home within a few days.”
Each year in the United States, 900,000 people are diagnosed as having a pulmonary embolism, according to the American Lung Association. The clots develop in another part of the body and then travel through veins to the lungs. Treatments for pulmonary embolism include medications such as blood thinners, a vein filter if medications aren’t working, or surgery.
