McLaren Bay Region, part of statewide McLaren Health Care, and vascular surgeon Nicolas Mouawad, MD, MPH, MBA, RPVI, are the first in the country to use the SEISMIQ™ Intravascular Lithotripsy system, a minimally invasive procedure to help relieve patients’ quality-of-life-limiting symptoms resulting from an advanced form of a common chronic condition.
Affecting tens of millions of Americans, peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a narrowing of the arteries, reducing blood flow to the limbs — most often in the legs. In severe cases, plaque build-up in those arteries can become calcified — further hardening the arteries and making the patient’s condition more difficult to treat through traditional minimally invasive treatment options.
Utilizing the latest clinical technology, SEISMIQ uses laser-generated acoustic pressure waves to fracture hardened calcium within the wall of the artery without damaging soft tissue, preparing the blood vessel and the patient for further treatment, such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement.
“This procedure represents a meaningful advancement in our ability to treat complex PAD cases with minimally invasive techniques, but more impactful, it provides patients with the benefit of a significantly improved outcome using lithotripsy,” Dr. Mouawad said. “By enhancing our ability to more effectively treat this calcification — or hardening of the arteries — we are able to provide patients with safer, more reliable care when addressing this complex condition.”
For patients with advanced PAD, calcification can be particularly challenging as restoring adequate blood flow to the limbs is essential for wound healing and preservation of those limbs.
SEISMIQ is designed to improve the overall function of the blood vessel while also enabling the surgeon to have a high level of control, providing them feedback during the procedure to inform any adjustments in order to achieve an optimized outcome.
The SEISMIQ system has already been evaluated in two clinical trials for the treatment of PAD and is now being considered for other applications. It has been recognized across the health care industry for delivering high success rates, low complication risks, and improvements in quality of life for patients with challenging calcified lesions, particularly those with critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI).
To learn more about services offered through McLaren Bay Region, visit mclaren.org/bayregion.
About McLaren Bay Region
McLaren Bay Region is a 409-bed acute care hospital located in Bay City, Michigan, serving all of the Great Lakes Bay Region communities. Part of statewide McLaren Health Care, McLaren Bay Region provides a range of patient-centered care offerings, including primary, preventive, and diagnostic services, trauma (verified Level III) and emergency medicine, and specialty care, including surgical, cardiovascular, orthopedics, neurosciences, and women’s health services. A branch of the Karmanos Cancer Network, the largest network of cancer providers in the state, cancer care provided at the Karmanos Cancer Institute at McLaren Bay Region is anchored by the world-renowned Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. The hospital also operates West Branch, a multidisciplinary medical campus and freestanding emergency department. An ACGME-accredited facility, the hospital’s graduate medical education department trains dozens of tomorrow’s health care providers across two residency programs. McLaren Bay Region is accredited by The Joint Commission and has a rich history of providing high-quality, compassionate care and holds a trusted position in the community it is privileged to serve. Learn more at mclaren.org/bayregion.
About McLaren Health Care
McLaren Health Care, headquartered in Grand Blanc, Michigan, is a $7.3 billion, fully integrated health care delivery system committed to quality, evidence-based patient care and cost efficiency. The McLaren system includes 12 hospitals in Michigan, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, a 640-member employed primary and specialty care physician network, commercial and Medicaid HMOs covering more than 732,838 lives in Michigan and Indiana, home health, infusion and hospice providers, pharmacy services, a clinical laboratory network and a wholly owned medical malpractice insurance company. McLaren operates Michigan’s largest network of cancer centers and providers, anchored by the Karmanos Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. McLaren has 20,000 full-, part-time and contracted employees and more than 113,000 network providers throughout Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Learn more at mclaren.org.