Stroke-preventing technology demonstrated in JoVE

Within the United States alone, roughly 6 million folks endure from an irregular heartbeat referred to as atrial fibrillation (AF), and since the incidence will increase with age, it is predicted that 15.9 million People can be affected by 2050. The most devastating side impact of AF is stroke, but a brand new gadget from Boston Scientific might prevent them from occurring.

Researchers from Atritech, now part of Boston Scientific, developed the WATCHMAN machine, a small mesh umbrella that may be inserted into part of the heart cavity to stop the formation of blood clots that cause strokes.

Currently, the anti-coagulant drug warfarin is used to prevent strokes, however the drug comes with other risks.

"Warfarin has a variety of facet-effects. One major facet-effect is the bleeding threat," mentioned paper writer Dr. Sven Mobius-Winkler. "Due to this fact, only 50 p.c of the sufferers who ought to take Warfarin truly take it."

The WATCHMAN system gives sufferers another option. It has already been authorized for use within the European Union and Australia, and secured investigational approval from the FDA in 2009.

To help prepare medical doctors how to use the system, medical doctors from the College of Leipzig Heart Middle in Germany are publishing the complete WATCHMAN placement process in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), the world's first and only peer-reviewed, PubMed listed, science and medication video journal.

"Intervention and closure of the left atrial appendage is a complex procedure," stated Dr. Mobius- Winkler. "For inexperienced physicians, it's laborious to learn this process and due to this fact the video might help by doing step-by-step the implantation."

"The WATCHMAN system will give patients with atrial fibrillation an alternative choice relatively than anti-coagulant drugs," stated JoVE Editor Dr. Robert Dolan. "This article demonstrates the implantation of the system and will assist clinicians achieve expertise with the procedure, serving to lots of the patients who are unable or unwilling to take warfarin."

More info: The process will be revealed in JoVE on Feb. 28, and could be seen here: http:// www.jove.com/video/3671/the-watchman-left-atrial-appendage-closure-gadget-for-atrialfibrillation

Provided by The Journal of Visualized Experiments