Antibiotic Envelope

• by Pookie
• 2008-09-24 03:09:57
• General Posting
• 1213 views
• 2 comments

To Bobad...this might help, I posted it a couple of weeks ago:

Holy Mackerel....what a smart idea.

Interventional cardiologist Ali Massumi, MD was the first physician in the U.S. to replace a pacemaker enclosed in a mesh envelope. The envelope, made of standard surgical mesh, is embedded with two antibiotic agents that provide site-specific antibiotic protection for the pacemaker, which is implanted just below the collarbone. This prevents the need for systemic antibiotics (taken orally). The device is made by TyRx Pharma, Inc., which recently received FDA approval.

“Pacemakers are placed in an area where there aren’t a lot of blood vessels, so systemic antibiotics may not reach the specific area. Replacing leads which run from the pacemaker to the heart can be quite difficult because of scarring in the area. These high risk patients are more prone to infection and obviously we want to avoid any infection to the heart,” said Dr. Massumi.

There is a picture of it too on the website!!! This mesh envelope also allows the surgeons to secure the pacemaker better and much more valuable information.

go to: www.texasheart.org

Pookie