Medication
has been the only treatment available to patients suffering from angina and
heart failure. It has been found that
even surgical procedures like bypass surgery and angioplasty sometimes do not
prove to be effective. As an alternative form of treatment, Enhanced External
Counter Pulsation has been introduced. More commonly known as the EECP therapy,
it is a recent breakthrough in the field of medical science.
Who can go for EECP treatment?
According to
the EECP patient guidelines, patients
who have ailments like renal problems, diabetes and lung diseases are best
suited for receiving the EECP treatment. This is mainly because of the fact
that EECP treatment is a non invasive procedure. This means that no part of the
patient's body is surgically opened. Hence, no surgical wounds are inflicted on
the patient. There are no side effects of the EECP therapy. The sheer
simplicity of this innovative procedure ensures that the patient is not
required to take any kind of pills, which can cure the side effects of the
therapy. Hence, there is absolutely no kind of medication involved in this
process that interferes with the patient's regular medication and ailments.
This significantly reduces the risk of the entire procedure.
Specialty of the EECP treatment
According
to doctors, the specialty of the EECP procedure lies behind the fact that it
significantly decreases the angina attacks that a person may have to suffer.
Along with this, it also reduces the strength of these attacks to such an
extent that their effect on the patient's body is almost diminished. This
procedure has been designed for both the male as well as the female body.
Independent research has shown that after undergoing EECP therapy, the patients
can reduce their dosage of heart related medicines. Hence, this therapy also
helps to cut down the medication costs that a patient has to bear.
Steps involved in the procedure
·
The patient's legs are
attached to pneumatic cuffs. These cuffs are then fed in to the machinery that
observes the patient's vital signs like heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, etc.
Then according to the results obtained from the patient's echocardiogram, these
pneumatic cuffs expand and contract.
·
This set up ensures that the
after load is steadily reduced while there is a consequent rise in the preload.
Thus, the cardiac output of the patient increases. This therapy is in some ways
similar to the intra aortic balloon pump system.
·
Blood flow is increased to
the heart rapidly by carefully compressing the blood vessels of the patient's
lower limbs. The flow of blood is timed with the patient's heart's relaxed
state. With utmost precision, the pressure is removed as the heart starts to
pump again.
·
This leads to creation of
smaller blood vessels, which acts as natural bypass channels, thus, reducing
the cardiac pain experienced by the patient due to angina.
An EECP
session lasts for about two hours each day and the therapy is completed within duration
of five weeks. After this, the patient is free to continue with his life
without any kind of medically imposed restrictions.
