Health Update: Reasons To Celebrate Heart Month

The month of February was designated Heart Month probably because it was a natural fit: We already celebrated with hearts—and sometimes flowers—in this month. As a cardiologist, hearts are very important to me, and I want yours to be equally important to you. Learning about heart health is the first start. As an endovascular specialist so many of my patients are diabetics and I know what the addition of a poor diet and lack of exercise over the years can do to them.

In November of 2013, a 67-year-old gentleman residing in Oklahoma called me, having been given his number by a mutual acquaintance. This patient had been admitted to an outside hospital and was scheduled for amputation of his leg. He had a diabetic foot ulcer thought too advanced to save by his surgeons. The ulcer was gangrenous, deep, and involved the bones of his foot as well. I instructed him to check out of the hospital and come see me as quickly as possible.

Upon arrival he was urgently taken to the endovascular lab and found to have no circulation below his knee and no vessels identified by angiography. However, I was able to find a vessel at his ankle level under ultrasound. I then proceeded to open the vessel from his foot to above his knee.

Blood flow was re-established and this gentleman was subsequently treated with aggressive wound care, hyperbaric oxygen, and IV antibiotics. He did require a second intervention in February of 2014 but today he is back at work and able to walk. He lost four toes, but was able to keep his leg and is fully functional today.

I happen to be one of the few endovascular interventional physicians in the United States trained to open totally closed vessels below the knee under ultrasound. I have opened thousands of vessels over the years but this technique using ultrasound that I learned three years ago has been remarkable. My success at saving limbs scheduled for amputation is now 92% whereas before this technique success was rather dismal.

I now teach the technique to physicians around the world, routinely giving lectures, teaching cadaver labs, and hands-on training to cardiologists, vascular surgeons, and interventional radiologists at Arkansas Heart Hospital.

In Arkansas and throughout the United States, shockingly 50% to 60% of patients scheduled for amputation of a limb have never seen an endovascular specialist or even had blood pressures taken in their legs. I hear of at least of one person or friend of a person each week who knows of someone having had an amputation without any type of vascular workup.

Discuss your heart health early with your physician and you may discover that by starting today with just simple changes to your daily routine could make great things happen for you. We can all begin today deleting or at least avoiding the foods and food products we know are a danger to our heart health, and to get up out of our chairs and take a little walk. And don’t forget the hearts and flowers to those you love this February.

Dr. Lonnie Harrison is an interventional cardiologist at Arkansas Heart Hospital. Dr. Harrison also sees patients at Arkansas Heart Hospital Clinic of Benton and is on staff at Saline Memorial Hospital.

At Arkansas Heart Hospital, he is part of the Peripheral Vascular Institute and in charge of the Stem Cell peripheral vascular program where he recently performed the world’s first and second perivascular Stem Cell implantation in the heart with adipose derived stem cells. He is on the teaching faculty and advisory boards of many interventional companies and is involved in several ongoing peripheral vascular research studies at Arkansas Heart Hospital.