The ability to offer this treatment to our patients at DHMC gives tremendous potential to preserve and even improve their quality of life.
Jocelyn M. Beach, MDNovember marks American Diabetes Month, a time to raise awareness and promote research related to diabetes. One of the more devastating impacts of the disease many diabetics face is chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI), often requiring amputation of the foot. A state-of-the-art procedure now available through the Heart & Vascular Center at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) offers the chance of limb preservation for many patients who otherwise might be destined for amputation.
LimFlow is a minimally invasive technology designed to divert blood around diseased arteries in the leg and into the tibial veins that feed the foot, bringing blood and oxygen to starved tissues in the foot. The procedure works by implanting a stent in the patient’s leg that permanently bypasses arteries that are blocked and cannot be reconstructed. An abundance of oxygen in the tissue can immediately relieve pain and promote healing of chronic wounds for many patients, improving their quality of life. DHMC is the only hospital in northern New England (New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine) to offer LimFlow, and only one of two in all New England and just 25 nationally.
DHMC patient Robert McBride, 72, of Bellows Falls, VT, has lived with type 1 diabetes for 58 years and grew concerned when a small wound on his left big toe was failing to heal. When hyperbaric treatment was ineffective, McBride’s vascular surgeon, Jocelyn M. Beach, MD, recommended he have the LimFlow procedure.
“The wound was just getting worse to the point that it almost hit bone in my toe,” McBride said. “While Dr. Beach did have to amputate my toe, had I not had the LimFlow procedure, I probably would have lost my entire left foot eventually.”
In addition to saving his foot, McBride said LimFlow caused his oxygen levels to improve dramatically, from the low 30s to the high 50s.
“I want everyone who might be in danger of losing their foot, like I was, to look into LimFlow, especially folks like me in rural New England who might think they’d have to travel far to Boston or New York for a surgery like this,” McBride said. “I received truly outstanding care and attention to my issue from the team at DHMC, and this procedure really changed my life.”
“Amputation is a drastic measure, but before procedures like LimFlow, it was often the only option for patients like Mr. McBride,” said Beach, who serves as principal investigator of a clinical trial of LimFlow at DHMC. “The ability to offer this treatment to our patients at DHMC gives tremendous potential to preserve and even improve their quality of life.”
For more information on LimFlow at DHMC, visit https://bit.ly/3QoYFDc.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.