In the United States alone, approximately 6 million people suffer from an irregular heartbeatcalled atrial fibrillation (AF), and since the incidence increases with age, it is predicted that 15.9million Americans will be affected by 2050. The most devastating side effect of AF is stroke, buta new device from Boston Scientific may prevent them from occurring.
Researchers from Atritech, now part of Boston Scientific, developed the WATCHMAN device, asmall mesh umbrella that can be inserted into part of the heart cavity to prevent the formation ofblood clots that cause strokes.
Currently, the anti-coagulant drug warfarin is used to prevent strokes, but the drug comes withother risks.
“Warfarin has a lot of side-effects. One major side-effect is the bleeding risk,” said paper authorDr. Sven Mobius-Winkler. “Therefore, only 50 percent of the patients who should take Warfarinactually take it.”
The WATCHMAN device is inserted into a small cavity in the heart to prevent clots from traveling to the brain.
(Photo Credit: © Journal of Visualized Experiments)
The WATCHMAN device gives patients another option. It has already been approved for use inthe European Union and Australia, and secured investigational approval from the FDA in 2009.
To help train doctors how to use the device, doctors from the University of Leipzig HeartCenter in Germany are publishing the full WATCHMAN placement procedure in the Journalof Visualized Experiments (JoVE), the world’s first and only peer-reviewed, PubMed indexed,science and medicine video journal.
“Intervention and closure of the left atrial appendage is a complex procedure,” said Dr. Mobius-Winkler. “For inexperienced physicians, it is hard to learn this procedure and therefore the videocan help by doing step-by-step the implantation.”
“The WATCHMAN device will give patients with atrial fibrillation another option rather thananti-coagulant drugs,” said JoVE Editor Dr. Robert Dolan. “This article demonstrates theimplantation of the device and will help clinicians gain expertise with the procedure, helpingmany of the patients who are unable or unwilling to take warfarin.”