UAMS' well-regarded Vascular Center under the direction of John Eidt, M.D., now has an Endovascular Surgery Suite that is an Arkansas first.

The suite provides Eidt's surgery team with the most advanced equipment available for the very latest minimally invasive treatments.
 
The $1.5 million surgery suite includes new medical imaging technology, such as clear 3-dimensional pictures and low-dose X-ray equipment for numerous minimally invasive operations. With Eidt at the helm, UAMS is among a handful of hospitals nationally leading the move to endovascular surgery.
 
"We now have ideal imaging and an ideal operating room," said Eidt, professor of surgery and radiology and division director of the College of Medicine's Department of Vascular Surgery. "This is a statewide resource, and there's nothing else like it in Arkansas."
 
The Department of Vascular Surgery also has added staff, including two vascular surgeons, giving the department a total of four. "We've never had a better combination of people and facilities," Eidt said.
 
The operating suite is designed for imaging-intensive, catheter-based endovascular techniques and "hybrid" procedures combining traditional surgical interventions and the newer endovascular methods.

"With our new endovascular operating suite we will be able to expand our treatment of carotid artery disease, abdominal aortic aneurysms and peripheral arterial disease," he said.
 
Endovascular treatments are fast replacing traditional open-surgical methods that for years have been the gold standard of treatment. These exciting new laparoscopic procedures are significantly reducing hospital stays, pain and recovery time for patients. Many are done on an outpatient basis.
 
"Vascular surgery has changed dramatically in recent years, particularly with the growth of endovascular surgery and the types of endovascular devices available to treat arterial and venous disorders," Eidt said. "New technology may make some types of conventional vascular surgery obsolete."

UAMS' Vascular Center has adopted a variety of innovative minimally invasive procedures. One of the more novel is a tool with a tiny rotating blade, called the SilverHawk Plaque Excision System, to shave plaque from inside the leg arteries. UAMS is participating in a national clinical trial that involves use of the device.
 
UAMS has joined 60 hospitals in the trial, sponsored by FoxHollow Technologies - the developer and marketer of SilverHawk - to harvest plaque samples. Merck & Co. Inc. will use the samples to search for biomarkers that one day may enable physicians to treat each patient's vascular disease based on the patient's biological profile.