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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
congested heart failure
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
congested heart failure
by NANCY__0__0, Dec 30, 1998 12:00AM
Recently i was advised of a possible procedure that could benefit my mom. I'm not sure of the name of the procedure, but the procedure involves injecting alcohol into the artery similar to an angiogram. i believe it would block one of the arteries near the heart muscle. I would appreciate any info on this procedure since it is a new procedure. thanks
Doctor's Answer
by CCF CARDIO MD APS, Dec 30, 1998 12:00AM
_
Dear Nancy,
The procedure you are likely speaking of is alcohol ablation of the septal artery.
Septal artery alcohol ablation is still considered an experimental procedure, however for all those patients who are not candidates
for surgical (open heart surgery) correction, this procedure is their only hope when they do not get better with medicines.
In simple or layman's terms, septal ablation is a controlled infarction (MI or heart attack) aimed only at the septal wall that is
bulging into the outflow tract of the heart(and thereby obstructing outflow of blood). One of the three main coronary arteries (the
left anterior descending) has little branches off of it called the septal perforators which supply blood, oxygen, and other nutrients to
the septal wall.
So by putting alcohol selectively down one or two of the septal artery branches, you selectively infarct(kill) the tissue fed by those
branches; since infarcted (dead) tissue shrinks and scars, you have essentially minimized the obstruction caused by the bulging
tissue which now scarred, no longer "bulges". Of course the procedure does not completely eliminate the obstruction, however it does minimize such that the patient's
symptoms are lessened (reduced shortness of breath and minimal to no congestion).
I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for
general purposes only. Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies.
Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please
call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at
www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the
cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your
cardiac problem.
