Hospital Creates Program To Save Limbs
Dr. Jaafer Golzar is Cardiologist at Advocate Trinity and Advocate South Suburban Hospitals. Photo provided by Advocate Health.
Golzar said 30 percent of patients who have critical ischemia and are admitted to the hospital will have amputation as the primary method of treatment. He said the risk of amputation can drop by 90 percent if they have an angiogram. In African Americans there is a three times higher amputation rate than white patients, which shows a significant disparity in treatment.
The loss of limb can also mean a loss of life. Those who undergo a below the knee amputation; or a above the knee amputation, it can change people’s life and can increase mortality.
“If you have a below the knee amputation, at five years, 50 percent of patients are dead. If you have a above the knee amputation, 90 percent of these patients are dead,” he said, adding that the Chicagoland area has one of the highest amputation rates in the country.
Chicago also has the largest difference in lifespan from one socioeconomic class to another, a 30 years difference in the length of people’s lives. Using advanced technologies and minimally invasive techniques through tiny incisions, the team at Advocate Trinity has been able to save people’s limbs. Golzar said the team-based approach makes the difference. The team is passionate and wants to do the work to save people’s limbs. Golzar said there have been patients transferred to the hospital from other hospitals locally and across the country because of the program.
“We started this because we knew we could make a difference. We started this because it was in the heart of the South side of Chicago, the heart of the African American community, that we know has the worst outcomes. We knew that if we worked hard and worked together and we were able to change this paradigm, not only could we help the patients in Chicago, but we could be a national center of excellence and the epicenter of limb salvage,” said Golzar, adding that it is his goal to be able to teach other doctors to salvage limbs.
In the first year of the Advocate Trinity Limb Salvage Program, there were 126 patients that were enrolled in the program. There were six or less that lost their leg. Advocate is in the process of pulling together all of its data. The amputation rates are less than 3 percent.
Saving the leg encompasses opening the circulation and wound care. When the leg doesn’t have enough blood flow, the tissues start to die. The process uses the same technologies to open blockages in the heart, to open up blockages in the leg, using a tiny 2 mm incision in the leg. Golzar has dedicated his career to use the current technologies, as well as developing new technologies to address leg attacks.
“We get into those blood vessels and go all the way down into the leg and open up the circulation, clean out the plumbing and there are so many different things we can do, once we are there, that turns into the art of medicine. The goal is to restore the blood flow down to the foot,” he said.
From there, the patient is turned over to the wound care team. They are committed to limb salvage and understand it. They wound care team follows the patient, with interventions from the podiatrist. The family also is a part of the team, bringing the patient to the clinic and to the doctor’s office.
For more information about Advocate Trinity Limb Salvage Program, visit http://tinyurl.com/2en6d5jj.re
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