New treatment could spare heart patients from more surgery

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Researchers have discovered a minimally invasive procedure that dramatically cuts costs and could spare heart patients further surgery.

It's called CT-guided tube pericardiostomy and it's used to treat pericardial effusion, the collection of fluid around the heart which occurs following heart surgery. Traditional treatment involves an invasive surgical drainage technique. The CT-guided pericardiostomy is just as effective -- requiring no recovery time, fewer resources, and provides an 89 percent cost savings over the surgical drainage technique, according to a new study. The study, performed at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, included 39 CT-guided tube pericardiostomy procedures, all performed successfully.

"Patients having the procedure required only local anesthesia and no post-treatment recovery time," Suzanne L. Palmer, MD, lead author of the study was quoted as saying. "Comparison of procedure charges at our institution showed an 89 percent cost savings with CT-guided tube pericardiostomy instead of surgical drainage. We found that the total charge for a CT-guided procedure was only $769.15; the total charge for a surgical drainage procedure was $6,952.52."

"Pericardial effusion occurs in as many as 85 percent of patients following cardiovascular surgery," explained Palmer. "CT-guided tube pericardiostomy is an attractive first-line therapeutic option for these patients, especially in the postoperative period because it spares them from having another invasive surgery."

"Aside from being cost competitive it also makes the treatment option less risky for patients," said Dr. Palmer. "The procedure does not require general anesthesia and a catheter is inserted into the excess fluid for drainage -- allowing physicians to avoid working around major organs and vascular structures."

SOURCE:American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), October 2009