Boscobel Area Health Care Delivers Non-invasive EECP® Therapy to Relieve Symptoms of Patients with "Unfixable" Coronary Artery Disease
Painless outpatient treatment boosts blood flow to the heart, stops chest pain, restores energy and ability to exercise, and can reduce need for medication says Dr. Thomas Pelz, Director of BAHC's Cardiac Rehabilitation Program
Online, December 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Boscobel Area Health Care announced the availability of a safe and effective procedure for relieving angina pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, and other symptoms associated with coronary artery disease called Enhanced External Counterpulsation therapy (EECP®). The painless, non-invasive procedure is designed to improve blood flow to the heart and is administered on an outpatient basis in a series of daily one-hour sessions.
"We have treated patients suffering from both heart disease and peripheral vascular disease and they're doing wonderfully," said Dr. Thomas Pelz, Chief of Medical Staff and director of the center's Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. "The benefit I've seen from EECP® is that the patients' functional capabilities have dramatically improved."
Dr. Pelz said that one of his patients was able to lose over fifty pounds after beginning EECP® treatments. "Before treatment, the patient could only walk one or two hundred feet, but after treatment he was able to walk much farther without chest pain or fatigue - so he was able to burn off the calories that he was eating," said Dr. Pelz. "Saying that the patient is excited about his improvement would be an understatement."
Dr. Pelz said that during EECP® treatment, the patient reclines on a comfortable table while the calves, thighs and buttocks are wrapped in compressible cuffs which are inflated and deflated in time to the patient's own heart beat. "The squeezing of the lower body during the heart's resting phase drives blood upward and activates a network of collateral arteries which route blood past the restricted coronary arteries and into the oxygen-starved heart tissues," said Dr. Pelz.
Dr. Pelz says that elimination of chest pain and an increase in energy and mobility aren't the only benefits that his patients have derived from EECP® therapy. "The therapy increased circulation and lowered blood pressure in one patient so much that we were able to reduce his blood pressure medications by 50 percent," said Dr. Pelz.
"Heart patients who have previously undergone surgery and angioplasties and are unable to receive further invasive procedures can receive relief from most of their symptoms with EECP® therapy," said Dr. Pelz. "In about 75 to 80 percent of cases, EECP® is an effective way to fix patients with 'unfixable' heart disease."
EECP® therapy is covered by Medicare and most private insurers.
For more information about Boscobel Area Heath Care's EECP program, contact Theresa Braudt, Department of Cardiac Rehab, (608) 375-6221, or write to her at 205 Parker St., Boscobel, WI, 53805, or email tbraudt(@)boscobelhealth.com.
Web site: www.boscobelhealth.com.
ABOUT DR. THOMAS PELZ
Dr. Pelz received his certification in Internal Medicine in 1989 and received his Fellow in the American Academy of Internal Medicine in 1995. He has been with Boscobel Area Health Care since 2000. He was named Chief of Medical Staff in 2003 and currently serves as the Director of BAHC's Cardiac Rehabilitation Program.
Dr. Pelz currently serves on multiple national boards. He is the Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and is a founding member and Chair of the American Board of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Pelz is also on the credentialing board for the American Board of Physician Specialists (ABPS). The ABPS is the organization responsible for certifying and recertifying thousands of M.D. and D.O. physicians from all 50 states in 16 medical specialties
Dr. Thomas Pelz was named Physician of the Year in Internal Medicine by the American Association of Physician Specialists (AAPS) and honored with the "Thomas Ebner Leadership Award" for his service to AAPS.
