The Clot Catcher

Dr. Christian Machado, medical director of the Electrophysiology Services and Arrhythmia Device Clinic at St. John's Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan has become the first surgeon in the United States to provide a different way to stop clots from traveling from the heart to the brain and other locations in the body. He implants a device called the AMPLATZER™ Cardiac Plug (ACP) into a region of the atrium known as the left atrial appendage (LAA), which accumulates clots. This umbrella-like "clot catcher seals the LAA and prevents clots from traveling to the rest of the body.

Dr. Machado's patient Paul Burris, who recounted his experiences to the news service Ivanhoe (linked below), says the cardiac plug changed his life. 

Burriss lives with atrial fibrillation. He took blood thinners, but the dosage high enough to lower his clotting factors had painful side effects. Even walking became painful, and playing with the grandkids was out of the question. Not only did he not feel like participating in their activities, the grandchildren protested at the opportunity to play with their grandfather with the comment "You know he bruises real easy," Burriss told Ivanhoe.

After installation of the cardiac plug, Burriss and his doctors were able to manage his clotting factors with lower doses of anticoagulants, and Burriss was able to play with his grandchildren again. And for a grandparent or a grandchild, that's a life changing benefit.

Machado reports that all of the procedures for implanting the cardiac plug have produced the desired results and none of the people who have received the AMPLATZER device has suffered complications. The device is delivered to the heart by a catheter. Open heart surgery is not necessary. The incision the doctor needs to enter the artery and go to the heart is just 3 mm wide and does not even need stitching.

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Both the AMPLATZER cardiac plug and a device by another manufacturer called the Watchman, made by Atritech, are available in some hospitals outside the United States. Earlier procedures with these devices were not entirely free of complications, although there were at first some reports of blood clots forming during the procedure and on the device itself. Dr. Machado has been able to avoid these complications. Most patients who receive the device take low-dose Aspirin and low-dose Plavix (clopidrogel) for three months as it becomes integrated into heart tissue and then just a baby Aspirin a day thereafter. Complications from blood thinners become a thing of the past and anticoagulant therapy (other than with Aspirin) may become unnecessary.

As this article is being written, the AMPLATZER device is only available in the United States to participants in a clinical trial. For more information about getting into the trial, visit http://clinicaltrials.gov and search for "Amplatzer cardiac plug clinical trial."