OAK LAWN, Ill., June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill. has become one of only a few institutions in the Chicago area, the only one in the Advocate Health Care system and among about 25 hospitals nationally that are using a glue-like liquid for the successful treatment of brain aneurysms without surgery.
In a recent two-and-a-half-hour procedure, Thomas J. Grobelny MD, of the medical center’s Neurosciences Institute, led a team in use of the substance to eliminate an aneurysm from the petrous-cavernous carotid artery on the right side of a patient’s head.
Called Onyx(R)HD 500, the glue-like liquid is delivered through a micro-catheter, a thin, tube-like device that has been threaded through a patient’s blood vessels to the site of the aneurysm. The liquid, which hardens upon contact with blood and other body fluids, is used to fill the aneurysm, effectively sealing it off by blocking the flow of blood to it.
The Onyx(R) material is intended for use with large aneurysms or those having wide openings, called “necks.”
Aneurysms form when a weakness in a blood vessel wall causes the vessel to balloon out and form a thin-walled, blood-filled pouch. If this pouch, or sac, develops in a brain blood vessel and bursts, a patient can sustain a devastating, even lethal, stroke as blood floods the brain tissue, said Dr. Grobelny.
Dr. Grobelny is a neurointerventionalist, namely a physician specializing in minimally invasive, endovascular neurosurgery.
The neurointerventional surgery team at Advocate Christ Medical Center has been a regional leader in the application of innovative, minimally invasive treatments for removal of brain aneurysms.
Just last year, the medical center became one of the first Chicago area institutions and only one in the Advocate Health Care system to use a specialized stent — the CORDIS ENTERPRISE(TM) Vascular Reconstruction Device and Delivery System. The advanced tool enables physicians to block off a brain aneurysm that has a wide neck separating it from the main blood vessel and to hold in place wire coils positioned inside the aneurysm. The wire coils facilitate clot formation, thereby stopping blood flow to the aneurysm and reducing the risk of rupture.
Also in 2007, the same team, under Dr. Grobelny’s leadership, achieved another “first” for the south and southwest suburbs and for Advocate Heath Care when it filled a patient’s potentially lethal brain aneurysm with coils that literally swelled up to eight times their original volume. The coils had been coated with a hydrogen polymer, which, in combination with water from surrounding body tissue, caused the coils to swell and fill the aneurysm.
“The highest technological advancements in minimally invasive brain aneurysm surgery are not simply the domain of university-based medical centers. These advancements are important treatment options available at major teaching hospitals like Advocate Christ Medical Center,” Dr. Grobelny stated.
In addition to its expertise in the treatment of brain aneurysms, the Christ Medical Center Neurosciences Institute also is a leader in the treatment of brain vascular malformations and stroke. In fact, last year, the Joint Commission, a national health care accrediting agency, awarded the medical center a two-year certification as a primary stroke center. Certification is given for “exceptional efforts to foster better outcomes for stroke care,” according to the Joint Commission.
Advocate Christ Medical Center
CONTACT: Mike Maggio Director, Public Relations/Government Relations ofAdvocate Christ Medical Center, +1-708-684-5063,[email protected]
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