Samsung Seoul Hospital announced Wednesday that it has successfully performed Korea's first orbital atherectomy system procedure on a patient with moderate to severe calcified lesions in the coronary arteries.
Coronary artery calcification is a condition where the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle harden like stone, commonly occurring in elderly patients or those with diabetes or reduced kidney function. The condition makes it difficult to insert stents to expand blood vessels, leading to high risks of procedure failure and complications.
Orbital atherectomy is a treatment method in which a diamond-coated device (crown) rotates in an elliptical pattern to minimize blood vessel damage while selectively removing calcified lesions. It softens the blood vessels, helping to expand narrowed coronary arteries more safely and uniformly. Unlike conventional methods, the procedure can be applied to various vessel diameters between 2.5mm and 4.0mm by simply adjusting the rotation speed without replacing the device.
The interventional cardiology team at Samsung Seoul Hospital's Heart Vascular Stroke Institute plans to establish an orbital atherectomy protocol tailored to Korean patient characteristics following this first procedure. The team aims to develop optimized treatment methods by integrating the technology with imaging techniques such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) that allow visualization of the vessel interior.
Professor Song Young-bin, who performed the first procedure on Tuesday, said, "Moderate to severe calcified lesions are important factors that significantly affect prognosis due to high procedural difficulty. The introduction of orbital atherectomy enables more precise procedures and outcome predictions, which will greatly help in establishing patient-customized treatment strategies."
Samsung Seoul Hospital has been leading cardiovascular disease procedures, including performing Korea's first intravascular lithotripsy in April last year, a cutting-edge treatment for removing calcified lesions within coronary arteries.