A highly specialized procedure "Вypass popliteo-tibialis dextra" was performed today, 4th July 2016, at St. Marina University Hospital in Varna, through which the lower limb of a 69-year-old patient was saved from amputation. The intervention was performed by Prof. Thomas Holzenbein - Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery at the University Hospital in Salzburg, Austria, and Prof. Dr. Veselin Petrov, Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery at Varna University Hospital and his team.
This is a specific and rarely performed procedure in cases of dysfunction of the smallest arteries in the limbs caused by diabetic angiopathy, accompanied by necrosis and diabetic foot ulcers. The surgery is intended to save the lower limbs from amputation and requires highly specialized microvascular surgical technique and instrumentation, as well as special training and huge surgical experience in this field.
After completing the intervention, Prof. Petrov said that in the future at St. Marina University Hospital in Varna, the new procedure would be used in other patients at risk of leg amputation due to the disease. "This is a sophisticated procedure, lasting several hours, which might take even 7-8 hours", added Prof. Petrov.
Prof. Thomas Holzenbein is a world-renowned specialist, who has specialized in the USA, under the guidance of the best surgeons in the field of vascular surgery. He worked at the University Clinic of Vascular Surgery in Vienna for many years and has specialized in the field of operative intervention in vascular complications in diabetic patients. Only three surgeries of that kind are performed at the University Hospital in Salzburg per week, and Prof. Holzenbein himself has performed more than 1500 procedures.
