Osler offers new, innovative life-saving surgical procedure at Brampton Civic

March 16, 2016 · 0 Comments

Patients suffering from life-threatening abdominal aortic aneurysms can now receive state-of-the-art surgery closer to home thanks to a new surgical procedure at William Osler Health System.
The new endovascular surgical team at Brampton Civic Hospital completed its first endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) recently.
The introduction of this new procedure means that area patients no longer need to travel outside of the community to receive this life-saving surgery.
“Before we started the endovascular aneurysm repair program at Osler, patients had to travel to benefit by this minimally-invasive procedure. Now we can offer it closer to home,” said Chief of the Vascular Surgery Division Dr. Varun Kapila. “For most patients, endovascular aneurysm repair can be done with local anesthetic or sedation, allowing the patient to return home the next day or even the same day. The minimally-invasive EVAR procedure is better for patients, and more convenient for their families.”
The term “endovascular” means “inside blood vessels.”
In EVAR surgery, a team of vascular and endovascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, anesthesiologists and nurses repairs the aneurysm or bulge in the patient’s aorta through small incisions in the groin. Long catheters are inserted inside the blood vessels to implant stent grafts inside the aorta. The grafts bypass the aneurysm and maintain blood flow to the legs, preventing a potentially fatal rupture of the aneurysm.
Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair is a safer, more efficient and much less invasive procedure for eligible patients than standard open surgical repair (OSR) for abdominal aortic aneurysms. OSR is a very successful procedure, but requires full anesthetic and involves a major surgical incision in the abdomen, significant blood loss, and up to a week of recovery time in hospital.
“Osler’s new Vascular and Endovascular Centre of Excellence provides access to leading-edge, life-saving surgical procedures for our high-risk patients, who now have more effective, safer, world-class surgical options right here in their own community,” said Osler president and CEO Matthew Anderson.
Osler’s department of surgery has been working for several years to develop a new endovascular therapeutics program to address the growing need for this advanced surgery in the Brampton and Etobicoke communities.
Osler successfully recruited top vascular and endovascular surgeons, Dr. Varun Kapila and Dr. Leonard Tse, and leading interventional radiologists, Dr. Jeffrey Jaskolka and Dr. David Kelton, who comprised the surgical team that worked together to perform Osler’s first EVAR procedure.
“Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair is an excellent example of the innovative, new technologies that Osler is bringing to our patients, and to this community,” said Vice-President of Medical Affairs Dr. Naveed Mohammad. “It is a credit to our departments of surgery and diagnostic imaging that we have been able to recruit the finest surgeons and radiologists to Brampton Civic to launch our endovascular program here.”
To watch a video interview and footage of the procedure featuring Osler’s first EVAR patient, visit WilliamOslerTV on YouTube.

Osler’s Endovascular Therapeutics surgical team performs the first Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) procedure at Brampton Civic Hospital. Seen here are Dr. Leonard Tse, Dr. Jeffrey Jaskolka, Dr. Varun Kapila, Dr. David Kelton, Dr. Ian Smith (observer) and Wendy Kane, RN, scrub nurse.
Submitted photo