Local resident Barbara Smith began experiencing massive swelling and extreme pain in her right leg earlier this year. Later she was diagnosed with a venous blood clot, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), for which she received a new DVT procedure at HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center.
The new treatment option involves inserting a retriever device into the vein, which cores out the clot from the vein wall and removes it during one outpatient visit. It mitigates the long-term effects and risks of the disease, said Dr. Venkataramanan Gangadharan, a proceduralist with HonorHealth Heart Group, part of HonorHealth’s Cardiovascular Center of Excellence. Gangadharan performed the procedure on Smith. When Smith came to John C. Lincoln, her leg had swollen to the size of a beachball and she was experiencing shortness of breath and had lost much of her mobility. Gangadharan and his team quickly and safely removed the clot.
DVT affects almost one million people in the United States each year and can lead to as many as 100,000 deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
After surgery Smith’s swelling had almost completely been resolved and she could move her leg “more effectively,” Gangadharan said.
