Cath Lab Recap: Redo Amputations; ACS At 20,000 Ft

European regulators suspended the AFX abdominal aortic aneurysm system's CE Mark due to type III endoleaks reported in an older generation of the device, device maker Endologix announced. (Mass Device)

Patients who got below-the-knee amputations had 60% odds of 1-year freedom from death or above-the-knee amputations, according to a single-center study published in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. "[M]any below-the-knee amputation patients in the endovascular era fail to derive the perceived benefit of knee salvage at the time of their index amputation," the authors suggested.

Twenty thousand feet in the sky, a well-known mountaineer had an acute coronary syndrome while climbing Lunag-Ri in Nepal. Conrad Anker and a climbing partner rappelled down back to base camp and made it to a Kathmandu hospital for angioplasty. (Seeker)

For drug-eluting stents (DES) implanted for a restenotic first DES, about 25% had stenosed again on early follow-up. First- and second-generation DES were equally likely to be restenotic on late follow-up (15.8% versus 14.7%, P=0.79), investigators reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.

The Amplatzer Septal Occluder successfully repaired a type IIIb endoleak in a fenestrated graft. Operators wrote in the Journal of Endovascular Therapy that they did not go for a secondary endograft because of the anatomy of the graft and the position of the fabric defect.

For heart failure patients, the SonR contractility sensor embedded in the right atrial lead in cardiac resynchronization therapy was associated with atrioventricular and interventricular timing optimization that matched that of echo guidance. (European Heart Journal)

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