Baptist Offers First-of-Its-Kind Treatment for Heart Disease

Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi announced a new treatment option for patients with severely calcified coronary artery disease living in North Mississippi.

The new technology is a novel application of lithotripsy, an approach that uses sonic pressure waves to safely break up kidney stones.

It is now available to treat problematic calcium in the coronary arteries that can reduce
blood flow in the heart.

“We are pleased that Dr. Mark Campbell, Interventional Cardiologist with the Stern
Cardiovascular Foundation and the cardiology team at Baptist North Mississippi is now
offering this brand new technology to our patients,” said Bill Henning, CEO and Administrator of Baptist North Mississippi. “This new therapy will be a wonderful addition to our arsenal of innovative cardiac treatment options to help our patients to live a longer, happier, healthier life.”

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. Each year, more
than 600,000 people in the United States die of heart disease. As people with heart
disease, specifically coronary artery disease, grow older and their disease progresses,
plaque in the arteries evolves into calcium deposits, which can narrow the artery.

Physicians often use stents to open an artery, and of the approximately one million
patients that undergo a stent procedure each year, 30 percent have problematic calcium
that increases their risk for adverse events.

Calcium makes the artery rigid and more difficult to reopen with conventional treatments,
including balloons, which attempt to crack the calcium when inflated to high pressure,
and atherectomy, which drills through the calcium to open the artery.

While atherectomy has been available for several decades, its use remains low, as it can result in complications for patients who are undergoing stent procedures. The new shockwave technology, also known as intravascular lithotripsy or IVL, allows physicians to fracture the problematic calcium – using sonic pressure waves – so that the artery can be safely expanded, and blood flow is restored with the placement of a stent and without
unnecessary complications.

“The cardiology team at Baptist North Mississippi is steadfast in our commitment to give
our patients access to the latest cardiovascular innovations to treat heart disease,” said
Dr. Mark Campbell. “It is exciting to be starting a new chapter in the treatment of heart
disease in some of our most complex patient cases after using the same tools for the last 30 years – especially one that improves the safety of the procedure for the benefit of patients of Oxford and surrounding counties.”

Staff report