Intelligence Unit
Special Reports
Special Events
Subscribe
Sponsored
Departments
- Leadership
- Finance
- Technology
- Physicians
- Community Hospitals
- Health Plans
- Marketing
- Quality
- Nursing
- HR
Follow Us
Cardiology's Final Frontier: Confronting CTO
For the past four years, Karmpaliotis has devoted much time to the retrograde and antegrade angioplasty, a procedure that can take four times as long as a stent. Since January, he and his team have performed 80 such procedures, with an established success rate of 89%, significantly more than significantly more than the national average of 65%, according to the hospital.
"Developments in guidewire technology, imaging technique, and coronary devices have contributed to the improved prognosis of patients affected by a CTO lesion," according to Current Cardiology Reports, in which "Enhancement in antegrade and retrograde techniques" also result in improved outcomes, the report stated.
Cardiac Interventions Today in 2008 described the strategies for confronting chronic occluded arteries as "conquering the last frontier of interventional cardiology."
The presence of CTOs often result in open heart surgery, though Karmpaliotis believes antegrade or retrograde angioplasty should be considered increasingly as a proper alternative option in carefully selected cases; to relieve a patient, too, of symptoms of angina, shortness of breath or compromised heart function.
In recent years, there has been much debate about the procedure in this country.
- Primary Care Docs Average More Hospital Revenue Than Specialists
- 69% of Employers Plan to Offer Healthcare Coverage After 2014
- How Chargemaster Data May Affect Hospital Revenue
- Building a Better Healthcare Board
- Q&A: Catholic Health Initiatives' New Senior VP for Capital Finance
- ED Physicians Key to Half of Hospital Admissions
- Hospital Pricing Irks Nurses; More Jobs, Less Pay
- Insurer's App Aims to Lower Healthcare Costs, Securely
- CMS Seeks to 'Rapidly Reduce' Medicare Spending with $1B in Grants
- Quiet ORs Better for Patient Safety
Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Larry Davis (3/24/2013 at 2:52 PM)
I've just completed my 2nd CTO surgery by Dr. Dimitri Kampaliotis. I had 2 coronary veins that were 100% blocked. It has only been 48 hrs since surgery and I already feel 100% better. My previous cardiologist had told me that since I had 2 previous by-pass surgeries there was nothing else that could be done for my condition. My medical doctor suggested I consider the rather new CTO procedure perfomed by Dr. Kampaliotis, and after consulting with the doctor, he agreed that I was a viable candiate for the procedure. I'm completley satisfied with the outcome and highly suggest anyone with conditions like mine to consider this procedure. Dr. Kampaliotis and his team was a life saver for me. That you Dr. Kampaliotis. Larry Davis Eatonton, GA.