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Repairing brain aneurysms and certain other
brain abnormalities has traditionally been major complex
surgery. Recently, Lee Memorial Health System (LMHS) became the
second health system in the nation to perform the Onyx™
procedure, an advanced method to treat brain aneurysms. LMHS
neurosurgeon, Dr. Eric Eskioglu, was the first to perform the
procedure in Florida. His team is located at HealthPark Medical
Center in South Lee County.
“This new procedure is for patients who we used to have to,
heartbreakingly, tell, ‘There’s nothing we can do,’” says Dr.
Eric Eskioglu, the only vascular neurosurgeon in the state of
Florida certified to perform the surgery. “It’s one big weapon
to treat an aneurysm minimally-invasively. We do not have to
open the skull.”
Nearly two percent of the population walks around with an
aneurysm in their brain. An aneurysm is the weakening of any
wall of a brain artery, forming a little bubble. The rupture of
the bubble can carry lethal consequences.
The Onyx™ procedure involves threading a catheter through the
groin. The tiny catheter fills the aneurysm with a putty-like
material, Onyx™. “The released Onyx™ comes out liquid and
solidifies as it meets blood,” explains Dr. Eskioglu, “just as
lava solidifies when hitting the ocean in Hawaii.”
The inside the targeted blood vessels the liquid continues to
expand, increasing volume and blocking the flow of blood to the
site of the aneurysm, and eventually solidifies. If blood cannot
enter the aneurysm, then there is no bleeding, meaning no risk
of rupture. “It’s literally like caulking an aneurysm,” says Dr.
Eskioglu. “Looking at a follow-up angiogram, you don’t even know
an aneurysm was there.”
Dr. Eskioglu’s second Onyx™ patient, Ann Durant, says her
one-night stay in the hospital felt more like a vacation than
brain surgery, crediting the attentive neuroendovascular team.
“We are just so blessed,” says Ann. “There seems to be more
important places in the country Dr. Eskioglu could have gone.
He’s so special, and he was here.”
After her seven-day recovery, Ann was taking her daily walks
with her husband. Dr. Eskioglu’s first Onyx™ patient, Phyllis
Welsh, was out playing golf and tennis one week after her
procedure.
“Even though the patients I treat are strangers to me, I know
they are somebody’s grandma, someone’s mother or father,” says
Dr. Eskioglu. “I never lose sight of that, because I am a very
family-oriented person, and I need to do my best to keep these
people going.”
Lee Memorial Health System offers leading edge medical
procedures and is blessed with some of the most highly skilled
caregivers and physicians in the country. The most important
part is that patients like Ann and Phyllis now have their lives
back without the need for complex invasive major surgery.
It is amazing stories like these that make me honored to serve
as President of Lee Memorial Health System.
Peace,
Jim Nathan, LMHS President
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