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This means that some of your blood vessels are constricted or closed off and your doctor has determined that you need a stent or a bypass (also called diversion) to improve blood flow to the heart.
Bypass operations offer excellent results in the short and medium term, but long-term success can be limited by the failure of the connection between the two blood vessels. In a standard bypass operation, this connection is manually attached by a surgeon with a suture. The Elana Heart Bypass System makes suturing obsolete. A big advantage as it will also make it possible to access the heart through keyholes in the chest in the future. Consequently, the chest does not need to open. This has an enormous impact on your rehabilitation. So, you can be back home after only a few days, without pain and dysfunction, to do the things you enjoy.
The Elana Heart Bypass System consists of a small “clip” that is pushed over the donor vessel and coronary artery during bypass surgery. With the help of a laser, a connection is automatically made between the two blood vessels and it does not require the surgeon to use suturing. The clip remains in the body to maintain the connection between the blood vessels.
Thus, the Elana Heart Bypass System reduces the time it takes to connect the two vessels. This allows this connection to be performed within minutes.
Is there more?
In addition, the Elana Heart Bypass system is standardized and reproducible, whereas in standard bypass surgery, it largely depends on the surgical technique and skills of the surgeon. As a result, the researchers expect that the quality of the connection is consistent and that bypass surgery with this system can therefore be performed in the future through smaller openings in the chest.
Finally, with this system, the blood flow in the coronary artery does not need to be interrupted while the connection is being made. Therefore, the bypass operation with the Elana Heart Bypass System will in many cases be able to be performed without the use of the heart-lung machine.
‘‘The clip is about as tiny as my eight-years old’s fingernail. We believe that minimally-invasive coronary artery bypass surgery with this device will be less traumatic and damaging for the patient. So, the recovery time will be shorter. And above all, the anastomosis will be standardized.”
Dr. Patrick Klein
Cardiothoracic surgeon at St Antonius Hospital
in The Netherlands
The Elana Heart Bypass System is a new medical device for only bypass operations. The Elana Heart Bypass System is based on the Elana-technique, which has been certified for use in the brain. This original Elana-technique has already been used in approximately 500 patients.
Elana is a registered trademark of AMT Medical BV.
