Area Patients Benefiting From Non-Surgical Treatments Few Oregonians Can Access in
Their Own Communities

In a state considered conservative for its continued reliance on surgical approaches to problems related to arterial disease, Dr. Howard Feldman, of Shaw Heart and Vascular Center, is gaining renown for his efforts to spare Douglas County patients from the knife whenever possible.

According to one medical equipment representative who spends most of his working life in hospitals across the Northwest, the state-of-the-art angioplasty techniques being used by Dr. Feldman to reopen blocked peripheral arteries (in the legs and arms) are being performed at few other health facilities in Oregon.
"And that’s a shame for patients at other hospitals," he says.

“Dr. Feldman is very progressive, and very successful, in his use of angioplasty to reopen vessels all the way down the legs into the feet,” says Garry Rivera, of Gore Medical Products. “He is allowing many patients suffering from advanced peripheral artery disease (PAD) to walk out of the hospital on their own two feet, when they might be facing amputation in other hospitals.”

Losing a limb to amputation is more than a quality of life issue; it is often a life or death issue. The death rate of patients who have lost a lower extremity has been estimated as high as 60 percent after five years.

“We have a saying in our industry – save a limb, save a life,” Rivera says.
Dr. Feldman says he has successfully treated with angioplasty scores of PAD patients with symptoms ranging from mild discomfort walking to debilitating leg pain even at rest.

Rather than undergo surgery, or in the worst cases amputation, these patients have regained the normal function of their leg without the ordeal of an invasive surgical procedure, a long recovery time, an unsightly scar and more.
“Angioplasty is far less complicated than surgery while being equally effective at opening blood vessels, whether to the heart or other parts of the body,” says Dr. Feldman.