Kidney Friends

implanting the HeRO vascular access device..

Quote:Dialysis requires frequent access to a person’s veins in order
to circulate the blood to cleanse the liquids and waste that normally
would be removed by working kidneys.

Due to the recent implementation of the HeRO (Hemodialysis Reliable
Outflow) Vascular Access Device by a surgeon, the quality of care and
life expectancy of dialysis patients who have exhausted peripheral venous
access sites suitable for fistulas or grafts have found a long-term solution.

Jeffrey Whitehurst, M.D., Surgeon, of General and Vascular Surgeons,
Dothan, has been implanting the HeRO device into access-challenged
dialysis patients for more than 8 months now.

Implanting the HERO graft is an alternative procedure for catheter-dependent dialysis
patients whose veins are damaged. “The procedure is like combining
the “permcath”- a tube or catheter usually placed in a vein in the neck, chest,
or groin, to a “graft”- a synthetic tube operating as an artificial vein,” Dr. Whitehurst said.

Often, patients’ veins in their arms become scarred, narrowed and occluded
due to the use of catheters, fistulas or grafts as a point of access to perform dialysis; they
also become subject to severe pain and massive swelling. These types of complications make
it difficult for medical providers and painful for patients to get the treatment they need. However,
these obstacles can be
bypassed during the HeRO procedure, said Dr. Whitehurst

“A special stent graft is placed under the large vein under the collar bone
instead of in the arm, goes directly to the right atrium of the heart. The stent
graft is then connected to the HeRO, which provides direct access to the arteries and an opportunity
for cleansed blood to return back into the body,” explains Dr. Whitehurst.

Once the graph is in place, the patient’s skin forms around the HeRO, made of a soft material called
Gortex, and doctors are then able to maintain dialysis- access for the long term.

There are all most 7,000 dialysis patients in Alabama, but Dr. Whitehurst one of the only surgeons in
this area implanting the HeRO vascular access device.

With 11 years of experience as a general surgeon, Whitehurst’s goal “is to continue performing this
procedure and giving dialysis patients a long-term solution that will ultimately help to keep them alive.”

thank goodness there is the 'HeRO' option to help dialyze these patients,
because without it, the fact is, the life span of these patients
would be shortened.
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