ASHLAND – Patients with coronary artery disease have an alternative, non-invasive treatment available that most patients, and some doctors, do not know about. That treatment – Enhanced External Counterpulsation – was on display Tuesday during an open house at University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center.
“Patients who have had coronary artery disease and they’re continuing to suffer from symptoms like shortness of breath, decrease in energy, and chest pain, those are the candidates for it,” said Kim Rosser, a registered nurse who works in UH Samaritan Cardiovascular Services. “We have great results. I would say 90 to 95 percent of our patients have significant improvement in those things.”
Rosser said the open house was planned to help spread the word about EECP therapy, which she feels is being underutilized because people have never heard about it.
“A lot of patients are being helped by this that didn’t even know it existed until they saw something in the paper,” Rosser said. “Even some of our own physicians didn’t know we offer this.”
Although the hospital has offered EECP since 2001, Samaritan Cardiovascular Services recently purchased a new, state-of-the-art EECP bed with funds from the Samaritan Foundation.
University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center is one of only 13 locations in Ohio to offer EECP. Known as the natural bypass, EECP stimulates the growth of small branches of blood vessels to create collateral circulation — a natural bypass around narrowed or blocked arteries.
EECP Therapy works by increasing the blood and oxygen supply to the heart muscle and decreasing the work the heart has to do to pump blood throughout the body.
Studies have found that EECP can improve a patient’s quality of life by reducing symptoms of fatigue, shortness of breath and angina, while also increasing energy and stamina.
“Usually these patients are somebody that has already had open heart, had a cath, have tried meds, and they’re like, ‘This just isn’t working enough,’ so then they go to this,” Rosser said. “I see first-hand. Everyone seems to love it. It’s an easy, noninvasive fix.”
EECP is an outpatient treatment for patients who suffer from angina or heart failure. During treatment, patients lie on a treatment table with large blood-pressure like cuffs wrapped around their legs and buttocks. The cuffs inflate and deflate and specific times, coordinated between a patient’s heartbeats. The treatment uses a continuous electrocardiogram to set the timing so the cuffs inflate while the heart is at rest, when it usually receives blood and oxygen. At the end of the rest period, the cuffs deflate.
A special sensor attached to a patient’s finger checks the oxygen level in their blood and monitors the pressure waves caused by the inflations and deflations.
After treatment, patients can return to normal activity that same day.
EECP therapy consists of 35 one-hour treatments, five days a week for seven weeks. Clinical studies have found that the therapy benefits more than 80 percent of patients treated with relief of symptoms for up to three years. A physician’s order is required to start EECP treatment.
Anyone wishing to learn more about the therapy can contact UH Samaritan Heart Services at 419-207-2494.
