SUNY Downstate Medical Center Is First To Use Amplatzer Septal Occluder In Brooklyn
Sep 12, 2005
SUNY Downstate Medical Center's University Hospital of Brooklyn is the first in the borough to treat heart defects using the Amplatzer Septal Occluder, an expandable double-disk implant delivered through a catheter.
Jonathan Marmur, M.D., Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Interventional
Cardiology at Downstate, is the first physician to use the Amplatzer device in Brooklyn.
The Amplatzer gives physicians the ability to correct problems such as atrial septal
defect, a congenital heart disorder characterized by a hole in the muscular wall of
the heart, through cardiac catheterization as opposed to open-heart surgery.
A small incision is made in the patient's groin area and the occluder's delivery system
is inserted through a vein. The physician then directs the catheter up to the heart,
where the doctor opens up the implant and closes the hole.
The FDA approved the Amplatzer in 2001. It is made of wire mesh and polyester fabric.
Patients with extensive cardiac abnormalities, infections, or blood clots in and around
the heart cannot undergo this procedure; likewise those allergic to nickel and those
who cannot take aspirin or blood thinners should not be treated with this device.
SUNY Downstate Medical Center is located at 450 Clarkson Avenue. It is the only academic medical center in Brooklyn and serves more than 2 million people throughout the borough.
###
About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.