A procedure that uses a vacuum-like device to suck blood clots from the arteries of heart attack victims cuts the death rate of dying in the following year by almost half. Doctors use the device before performing angioplasty, removing fragments that might break off in the future and block other vessels.
The procedure is performed after a cardiac surgeon guides a thin wire through the groin and into the body until it reaches the clot. This is the normal first part of a routine angioplasty. But before the balloon is inserted and inflated to compact the material forming the blockage, a slender tube combined with a syringe, sucks up the majority of the clot (called thrombus aspiration).
Researchers in the Netherlands, who studied 1,071 heart attack victims, discovered that blood flow was much better in those who had aspirations before angioplasty, which is generally associated with an improved chance of survival. One year after surgery, 9.9 percent of patients who received angioplasty alone died or had a second heart attack, but only 5.6 percent of patients who had also had aspiration before angioplasty.
Its a very quick step, said Dr. Felix Zijlstra, who conducted the study. He noted that the aspiration procedure was easy to perform and that the additional step did not delay angioplasty by a significant amount of time.
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