Lifesaving Pulmonary Embolism Treatments in Louisville, KY

Lifesaving Pulmonary Embolism Treatments in Louisville, KY Health Talk Transcript

Mariano Camporrotondo, MD, Cardiothoracic Surgery
Baptist Health Louisville

Mariano Camporrotondo, MD:

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension is a disease when the pressure in the lungs is high due to some obstructions in the arteries. The main reasons are clots from the legs or from anywhere in the venous system that go all the way to the lungs, and those clots get stuck there. With time, the patient develops high pulmonary hypertension. The main symptom is shortness of breath. Some other patients develop congestive heart failure, and some patients also have swollen legs, but mainly shortness of breath.

We have three types of treatments. We have a medical treatment that is medication to treat it. Also, we have pulmonary angioplasty, where we go in with a catheter to the pulmonary arteries and we deploy a balloon to expand the obstructions. We have a surgery called pulmonary thromboendarterectomy. It's a very complex procedure. We go to the pulmonary arteries and remove all the obstructions.

Pulmonary hypertension is a very deadly disease for patients because, without surgery, they will not survive. After surgery, they have a normal life — a completely normal life.

Here at Baptist Health Louisville, we are one of the few centers in the country that performs this kind of surgery. We are very happy to offer this to our patients and our community.