Surgical Innovations  2009
Pain in the legs or feet while walking should not be considered a normal part of aging.
It could be a sign of peripheral vascular disease, or PVD — the buildup of fatty deposits (plaque) in the arteries beyond the heart.
This buildup can block blood supply throughout the body, but most dangerously to the brain, kidneys, and legs.
Patients with even a moderate amount of arterial blockage may not have noticeable symptoms.
Others may have symptoms, but not realize that their difficulty with walking is a result of PVD.
Without the awareness of PVD, this problem may go undiagnosed, with patients suffering unnecessarily.
Transplant surgeons at NYPH/Columbia use autotransplantation to remove deeply embedded tumors involving the abdominal blood vessels, which would otherwise be considered inoperable.
Autotransplantation is the removal and reimplantation of a patient's own organ (or organs).
Unlike patients who receive organs from donors, patients undergoing autotransplantation do not have to wait for a donor to become available.
They are not required to take immunosuppressant medications following surgery, as is the case with transplantation of donor organs.
In approximately one out of 30,000 pregnancies, a problem during development of the respiratory system leads to a birth defect in the lungs.
Advances in medical technology are enabling physicians to detect problems at earlier and earlier stages of fetal development.
At NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital/Columba, abnormalities of the developing lungs can be detected as early as four months gestation, enabling babies to receive treatment well before debilitating or dangerous symptoms develop.
A new Columbia program led by Matthew Bacchetta, MD, MBA, MA, is offering patients an innovative procedure known as pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) to clear the pulmonary arteries of chronic blockages.
Columbia is the only center in the eastern U.S. currently offering the procedure.
Ongoing blockage of the pulmonary arteries occurs when thrombus, or blood clots, build up in these vessels, inhibiting or blocking the path of blood flow through the lungs.
The blockage may result in high pressure in the lungs (pulmonary hypertension), a condition known as chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).
Depending on the size and location of the clots, CTEPH can dangerously reduce oxygenation of blood and weaken the heart.
Read more about pulmonary emboli and their treatment.
New Procedure Holds Many Benefits.
The adrenal glands, located adjacent to the kidneys, produce several important hormones.
Tumors may form in the glands, causing overproduction of one or more of these hormones.
Department of Surgery endocrine surgeons are removing these tumors with incisions through the patient's back instead of belly.
New Option in Treating Type 2 Diabetes
Eighty-three percent of patients experience a complete remission of type 2 diabetes after the weight loss procedure gastric bypass surgery, even before weight loss occurs.
Endocrine surgeon-researchers at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons are working to understand the reasons behind this unexplained benefit.
The Thyroid Surgery Experts
Columbia's New York Thyroid/Parathyroid Center pioneered many of the advances now employed to ease discomforts associated with thyroid gland removal to treat thyroid cancer.
Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, and typically affects young and middle-aged women.
Marc Bessler, MD, Director, Minimal Access Surgery Center, and his colleagues at Columbia University Medical Center are using, testing, and refining three new methods of performing surgery that leave no external scars on the body.
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