Robertsdale resident Ed Zawadzki worked as a machinist for 38 years — “pretty strenuous work” — but living with peripheral-artery disease made it extremely painful to even walk from his house to the garage.
An estimated 13 million Americans suffer from peripheral artery disease, a hardening of the arteries due to a buildup of cholesterol and scar tissue. When the arteries get clogged, the decreased blood flow to the legs can cause pain when walking, and eventually lead to gangrene and amputation.
But Zawadzki is experiencing less pain and a better quality of life through a new treatment that inserted a drug-coated balloon into blocked arteries in his left leg in November.
“Dr. (Prakash) Makam is a whiz,” Zawadzki said. “He fixed me up. It’s been weeks since the surgery and I’m still walking.”
Makam, a Munster cardiologist, is one of the first in the United States to perform the surgery since it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October.
Makam said the treatment of PAD is often frustrating because artery blockages reoccur and patients have to come back every few months for treatment.
“With short blockages (near the heart), stents can cut down reoccurrences, but stents haven’t worked out so well with the legs. Legs can get blockages up to 40 centimeters long, so patients are going to come back,” Makam said.
Makam has been at the forefront of offering new treatments and technologies for his patients.
What makes the drug-inflated balloon treatment so promising, Makam said, is it releases a drug into the artery — Paclitaxel, which is normally used to fight cancer — which stays there for 30 days and allows the inside of the vein to heal and avoids subsequent blockages. Research has shown that there is a 95 percent chance the artery remains open.
During the procedure, Makam inserts the balloon via a catheter and inflates it in the affected artery for about 30 seconds, which releases the drug into the vein. Paclitaxel is absorbed in the tissue and the balloon is removed once the drug is released. The procedure typically takes less than an hour, and patients can be released from the hospital the same day.
Twenty of Makam’s patients have undergone the procedure since last fall and so far the results are positive, he said.
“It’s only been four months but hope it will last longer,” Makam said. “If we can keep it open six months, that gives it time to heal.”
When Dyer resident Harry Snell, 76, started feeling numbness in his legs five years ago, he thought it may have had to do with his service as a U.S. Army paratrooper. But he was diagnosed with PAD in 2008, and he has undergone 12 surgeries — mainly on his right leg — since then.
In December, Makam performed the drug-coated balloon procedure on Snell’s right leg and he said recovery has been much easier.
“I’m really amazed how little recovery time there is,” Snell said. “I’ve really had very little pain.”
More Top Picks Best White Noise Machines
The treatment is not yet approved for use in blockages below the knee, but Makam expects his office — Cardiology Associates — will participate in a clinical trial later this year. He said the procedure shows great promise.
“It is revolutionary in terms of improving patients’ quality of life,” Makam said.