A landmark situation was a patient where we had to use a vascular closure device. The ones that I was most familiar with were the Angio-Seal and the Perclose device. We had had a complication at UNC with a Duett device, which consists of a balloon occluding the femoral artery, and then a small injection of thrombin to seal the vessel. But there was a spill of thrombin into the femoral artery, and the patient had to undergo peripheral thrombolysis to reperfuse the lower extremity that was affected. So that was one complication that had not occurred to me.But then I had another complication that really upset me: an infection of a Perclose suture. The patient had to go through significant pain and suffering, had to go for surgery, remained with chronic pain and had to receive long-term intravenous antibiotic therapy to treat an infected pseudoaneurysm.
It was then that I decided enough was enough!! I had to find a safer way to deal with these patients......................................Read the full Interview HERE
