The worst news. The sinking dread that follows it. The chill spreading through your mind as someone says: “I’m sorry, we’re going to have to lay you off.” Or, “I hate to tell you, but the foreclosure can’t be stopped at this point.”

Or maybe…

“Neither stenting nor bypassing will work for your heart. I’m sorry.”

This last was conceptually true for a man named Fred Casciano, 61, of Traverse City, MI. He had struggled with cardiac health for decades and had received virtually every applicable treatment, including one that was still in clinical trials.

CABG (coronary artery bypass graft), or open-heart surgery, became medical mainstream in the 1970’s. It’s proven to be a robust procedure that lends itself more to gradual evolution than shocking revolution. But in Mr. Casciano’s case, a revolution was needed… or perhaps a re-evolution?

Mr. Casciano’s stents had undergone restenosis, and his vasculature would not tolerate a CABG, but his physicians, Drs. William O’Neill and Khaldoon Alaswad, of the Henry Ford Health in Detroit, MI, were not deterred. Faced with this seemingly-impossible situation, they found the revolution they needed by returning to the genesis of their science. They resurrected, reinvented, and reengineered a procedure from the 1950’s.

Armed with this new medical phoenix, Drs. O’Neill and Alaswad created a bridge between Mr. Casciano’s circumflex artery and his coronary sinus using only a catheterization-like procedure that did not require open-heart.

Dr. Alaswad put it succinctly: “It’s an exciting breakthrough that we hope will allow us to treat many more patients with this condition in the future.”*

We congratulate both physicians (and certainly Mr. Casciano) on their success, and wish them many more triumphs in the future. Such inventiveness and innovation are the reason we began building CABG flow measurement systems in the first place. We are proud to participate in the art and science of optimizing revascularization procedures. Click here to see what we offer. The benefits to the patient might surprise even a seasoned surgeon.

Then click here to read the original article, as presented by Henry Ford Health.

Thanks for reading,

                Transonic Systems, Inc

                                The Measure of Better Results

*Reference: http://www.henryford.com/news/2023/05/structural-heart-new-bypass-procedure