{"id":1279,"date":"2014-12-19T12:13:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T17:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2017-01-10T15:49:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T15:49:21","slug":"cooper-heart-institute-racks-up-impressive-list-of-recent-firsts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/2014\/12\/19\/cooper-heart-institute-racks-up-impressive-list-of-recent-firsts\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Heart Institute Racks Up Impressive List of Recent Firsts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cooper Heart Institute<\/a>, under the direction of Perry J. Weinstock, MD,<\/a> Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease, has recently added more clinical firsts to its already-impressive roster of achievements \u2013 testament not only to the cutting-edge cardiac expertise that resides here but also to the commitment Cooper has made to the infrastructure that supports it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA first-rate cardiac program requires a lot of resources,\u201d says Michael Rosenbloom, MD, Co-Director of the Cooper Heart Institute and Head of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, citing instrumentation, technology, specialized cardiac anesthesia and critical care, and support personnel. \u201cAnd the hospital has gone all-in to provide them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This commitment has put the Cooper Heart Institute on the proverbial map as the region\u2019s most comprehensive cardiac program, earning national recognition for its quality outcomes and attracting outstanding clinical talent.<\/p>\n

As a result, a growing number of companies are partnering with Cooper on clinical trials that are helping to transform the practice of cardiac care \u2013 and offering hope to previously untreatable patient populations through innovative devices and surgical techniques like transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) \u2013 an area in which Cooper excels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also known for our close relationship between cardiac surgery and cardiology,\u201d Dr. Rosenbloom notes. \u201cEveryone here realizes that working together not only serves patients best but it\u2019s also the way to achieve our goal of getting new technology as soon as it\u2019s available. Industry recognizes us for this collaboration, and it\u2019s a real plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past few months alone, Cooper Heart Institute has racked up an array of notable firsts \u2013 both within and outside clinical trials:<\/p>\n

Cooper is one of only two sites in New Jersey participating in the COAPT Trial, a national clinical trial designed to study the safety and effectiveness of Abbott Vascular\u2019s MitraClip\u00ae device in heart failure patients who have functional mitral regurgitation and are considered extremely high-risk for surgery (MitraClip currently is FDA-approved only for use in patients with degenerative mitral valve disease who are not surgical candidates).<\/p>\n

\u201cCooper was selected as a study site because of our extensive experience in structural heart disease,\u201d notes Sajjad A. Sabir, MD, Co-Director of the Structural Heart Disease Program in Cooper\u2019s Division of Cardiovascular Disease. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about this because there are a lot of patients with mitral valve regurgitation who have no other treatment option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good Friday was a very good day for two Cooper patients who were the first in South Jersey to undergo implantation of the Medtronic CoreValve\u00ae, used to treat severe aortic stenosis in patients ineligible for open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Edwards SAPIEN valve was initially FDA-approved for this extreme-risk patient population and Cooper was the first in New Jersey to offer it to patients; now it\u2019s also commercially available for high-risk patients who are candidates for either surgery or TAVR,\u201d explains Dr. Sabir. \u201cThe CoreValve is currently only for those patients who are at extreme risk for surgery, and we are the first and only institution in South Jersey to offer this new technology to our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is the standard treatment for paroxysmal AF when medications don\u2019t work; however, its success rate is only about 70 percent, and approximately one-third of patients treated require more than one procedure. The RF energy is delivered one point at a time around the pulmonary veins via a catheter tip, so there can be gaps, and it\u2019s time-consuming.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the FDA approved another type of ablative therapy for AF, cryoablation (freezing). This treatment is also delivered via a catheter, but this technique uses a balloon that inflates within the heart, outside the origin of the pulmonary veins. \u201cIt\u2019s more homogeneous and the entire vein can be isolated in just a few minutes,\u201d says Andrea M. Russo, MD, Director of Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Services, who performed the first procedure at Cooper earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Certain patients may be better candidates for one form of therapy than another. In any case, both modalities are now available for patient care at Cooper.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have an option for patients based on their anatomy and the type of atrial fibrillation they have,\u201d Dr. Russo adds, noting that Cooper is the only facility in South Jersey to offer cryoablation. She\u2019s hopeful this technology will reduce the recurrence rate and says, \u201cThe preliminary evidence is looking positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper is the only study site in the state for TRANSFORM, the first US clinical trial of a rapid deployment system for surgical aortic valve replacement procedures. The Edwards Lifesciences INTUITY valve system, which consists of a bovine pericardial heart valve and novel balloon-expandable frame, is designed to facilitate small-incision surgery and rapid valve deployment with the goal of enabling faster procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new valve system enables us to cut up to an hour off the operation be- cause it doesn\u2019t require the 15 to 18 pairs of sutures that other valves do,\u201d says Dr. Rosenbloom, who is the principal investigator. \u201cAs a result, patients spend less time on bypass which means less risk and fewer complications,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, an 82-year-old female patient at Cooper underwent New Jersey\u2019s first valve-in-valve procedure to replace her failing, surgically implanted bio- prosthetic aortic valve with a transcatheter valve \u2013 without open-heart surgery. Using transcatheter techniques, the new valve was placed inside the old surgically implanted valve and expanded by inflating a balloon, pushing the old valve out of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire procedure took less than an hour, the patient went home in less than 48 hours, and she is feeling dramatically better,\u201d says Interventional Cardiologist Georges I. Kaddissi, MD, of Cardiovascular Associates of the Delaware Valley. \u201cThis procedure is a life-saving option for select patients with failed tissue valves who are not candidates for another open-heart surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Central sleep apnea, a type of sleep- disordered breathing, is associated with a higher rate of ventricular arrhythmias. The Cooper Heart Institute is participating in a safety and efficacy study to evaluate the Respicardia\u00ae remede\u00ae System, an implantable medical device designed to improve cardiovascular health by restoring a more normal breathing pattern during sleep.<\/p>\n

Clinical Cardiologist John A. Andriulli, DO<\/a>, Director of Cooper\u2019s Arrhythmia Device Program, and the cath lab team performed the first remede\u00ae System implantation on January 30, 2014.<\/p>\n

Cooper also participated in a national trial to evaluate the benefits of a first-of- its-kind drugeluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold for the treatment of coronary artery disease (ABSORB III). Abbott\u2019s Absorb TM device works by restoring blood flow to the heart like a metallic stent, but then dissolves into the body, leaving behind a treated vessel that may resume more natural function and movement.<\/p>\n

Interventional Cardiologist Andrew P. Zinn, MD, of Cardiovascular Associates of the Delaware Valley, inserted the first Absorb device into a patient earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur relationship with industry builds on itself,\u201d Dr. Rosenbloom says. \u201cAs we do well in clinical trials, it attracts more companies looking to launch their products.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, Cooper is able to offer more solutions to more patients \u2013 evidenced by the spate of recent firsts outlined here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s very little we can\u2019t do,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe can take the highest-risk cases and do well \u2013 and routine cases do even better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cooper Heart Institute, under the direction of Perry J. Weinstock, MD, Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease, has recently added more clinical firsts to its already-impressive roster of achievements \u2013 testament not only to the cutting-edge cardiac expertise that resides here but also to the commitment Cooper has made to the infrastructure that supports it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[42,137],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-dzarnosky","4":"has-excerpt","5":"post-1279","7":"format-standard","8":"category-featured","9":"category-news-updates","10":"post_tag-cooper-heart-institute","11":"post_tag-perry-j-weinstock-md"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}