New Brunswick, N.J.-based Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is the first cardiovascular center of excellence in the state to use a drug-coated balloon angioplasty therapy for patients whose arteries have narrowed again following initial treatment, according to a Nov. 17 release.
The therapy was used by Tudor Vagaonescu, MD, PhD, associate professor of cardiology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and medical director of the hospital's Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories, to treat a 77-year-old patient whose artery had repeatedly narrowed after several previous angioplasty treatments with drug-eluting stents.
"In this patient’s particular case, medical literature indicated that this treatment gave her the best option for a successful outcome," Dr. Vagaonescu said in the release. "This breakthrough therapy can provide new hope for patients who experience these recurrences following their initial treatment. It has the potential to reduce hospital readmissions and improve the quality of life for patients diagnosed with in-stent restenosis (narrowing of prior implanted stents)."