Tift Regional Medical Center’s innovative stroke prevention by enroute transcarotid stent

TIFTON, Ga. – Tift Regional Medical Center (TRMC) achieves a milestone in vascular surgery, becoming the first to implement the tapered enroute transcarotid stent system.

Transcarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR) is an innovative, minimally invasive surgical method designed to provide high-quality stroke protection while minimizing the risk of complications.

Led by vascular surgeon Dr. Tim Fuller, MD, and FACS, the team at TRMC has become the first in the country to implant the tapered enroute transcarotid stent system.

“So, the procedure is done under anesthesia. The surgeon makes a small incision on your neck and a little tube goes in your vein in your groin. It allows us to reverse the blood flow when we’re put in the stent that protects the brain from any plaque that could break off. Once the blood flow is reversed, we put the carotid stent in and then we take once the blood flow is reversed, we put the carotid stent in and then we take the blood flow reversed off. The brain gets re perfused and we check the stent,” said Leighann Reynolds, Lead Cardiovascular Tech.

The introduction of the enroute stent marks a significant advancement in vascular surgery, offering tailored treatment options to accommodate the individual anatomy of each patient.

Leighann Reynolds, Lead Cardiovascular Technician, and Christi Bryant, Director of Cardiovascular Services at TRMC, provide valuable insight into the benefits and advantages of utilizing the enroute stent.

“This opens the door for more patients that have different anatomy or the location of the stenosis in the carotid artery to be able to provide a new stent, which is the tapered stent, to fix the stenosis,” said Christi Bryant, Director of Cardiovascular Services.

“So, some of our patients are symptomatic and some are asymptomatic. If you have arterial disease elsewhere in your body, the physician will do an ultrasound or a CT scan to see if you have carotid stenosis. Some of our patients have stroke symptoms, and if they’re symptomatic, we go ahead and do them kind of emergently and it reverses their symptoms. It is minimally invasive. It’s less downtime than having surgery, less pain and less scarring for the patient,” said Reynolds.

“So, this is the regular TCAR stent that we use. In the stent is the same size all the way down, and the new tapered stent that we have that is patient specific is larger on one side and then tapers down to a smaller area to match their vessel,” said Reynolds.

De’Andra Jacobs reporting.

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