Silver Cross Hospital Offers First-of-its-Kind Treatment for Heart Disease

Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox today announced a new treatment option for patients with severely calcified coronary artery disease. The new technology is a novel application of lithotripsy, an approach that uses sonic pressure waves to safely break up kidney stones. It’s now available to treat problematic calcium in the coronary arteries that can reduce blood flow in the heart. 

Dr. Francisco Yun and Dr. Christopher Bane, interventional cardiologists with Heart Care Centers of Illinois, performed the first two procedures March 8 at Silver Cross. 

“Both patients – a 70-year-old male and a 72-year-old male who had their original angiograms performed at an outside hospital, were referred to us because the traditional approach for deploying a stent would have been too risky,” said Dr. Bane. 

“Both procedures were performed that morning, and the patients went home later that day. This is a safe and innovative technology that results in great outcomes for patients with severely calcified coronary artery disease, which has been a challenge using traditional coronary angioplasty techniques.” 

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.[i] Each year, more than 600,000 people in the United States die of heart disease. As people with heart disease, specifically coronary artery disease, grow older and their disease progresses, plaque in the arteries evolves into calcium deposits, which can narrow the artery. Physicians often use stents to open an artery, and of the approximately one million patients that undergo a stent procedure each year, 30 percent have problematic calcium that increases their risk for adverse events.[ii] 

Calcium makes the artery rigid and more difficult to reopen with conventional treatments, including balloons, which attempt to crack the calcium when inflated to high pressure, and atherectomy, which drills through the calcium to open the artery.[iii] While atherectomy has been available for several decades, its use remains low, as it can result in complications for patients who are undergoing stent procedures.³  The new shockwave technology, also known as intravascular lithotripsy or IVL, allows physicians to fracture the problematic calcium – using sonic pressure waves – so that the artery can be safely expanded, and blood flow is restored with the placement of a stent and without unnecessary complications. ³“The cardiology team at Silver Cross Hospital is steadfast in our commitment to give our patients access to the latest cardiovascular innovations to treat heart disease,” said Dr. Yun. “It is exciting to be starting a new chapter in the treatment of heart disease in some of our most complex patient cases after using the same tools for the last 30 years – especially one that improves the safety of the procedure for the benefit of the Chicago area.” 

Dr. Yun added they have three additional patients who are candidates for the shock wave procedure. 

For important safety information regarding this new treatment, please visit www.shockwavemedical.com/IFU. 

For more information about heart care at Silver Cross, visit www.silvercross.org/heart.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm

[1] Généreux P, et al. JACC 2014; 63(18);1845-54

[1] Hill J., Kereiakes D., et al. IVL for Severely Calcified Coronary Artery Disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020 Dec, 76 (22) 2635–2646. https://www.jacc.org/doi/full/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.09.603

https://www.jacc.org/doi/full/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.09.603