A New Medical Device to Treat Complex Coronary Disease

December 15, 2021
─

The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) announces that the Hemodynamics Service has performed Quebec’s first intervention using an orbital atherectomy system on a patient. This state-of-the-art medical device dilates severely blocked arteries caused by calcium plaques.

This procedure creates space in the calcified artery for a stent to be installed. This small, expandable tube keeps the artery open and helps the blood flow properly.

“The treatment of calcified arteries has long been a major issue for patients with coronary artery disease,” says Dr. Guillaume Marquis-Gravel, an Interventional Cardiologist at the MHI and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Université de Montréal. “Other techniques are available for these patients, but they present a greater risk of complications and cannot treat at the same time the deep and superficial calcifications that block the arteries. Thus, not all interventional cardiologists use them. Since the orbital atherectomy system can treat these complex blockages, it will become more widely used in the future.”

Dr. Marquis-Gravel: the only cardiologist in Quebec qualified to perform this procedure

Only four cardiologists in the country, including Dr. Marquis-Gravel, have been using this Health Canada-approved orbital atherectomy system for the past year. Dr. Marquis-Gravel was certified during his fellowship in interventional cardiology at Duke University, a subspecialization made possible, among other things, by the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation.