Northern Health’s Vascular Surgery Unit is the first vascular team on the east coast of Australia to use an innovative new device to perform deep venous thrombus (DVT) removal in a patient.
Complex Venous Service clinical lead Iman Bayat led the unit and said he is delighted by the outcome and has been closely following the new technology for the past two years.
“I am pleased to announce that this was the first use of this technology on the east coast of Australia, with the first one performed in Perth,” he said.
“This device is a great tool that we now have in the Vascular Surgery Unit at Northern Health, and it will benefit many patients in the future.”
The INARI ClotTreiver device was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in late 2022.
The over-the-wire system is designed to capture and remove large clot burden from veins, treat in a single session, eliminate the need for thrombolytics and eliminate extended stays in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Aman Pillay was the patient at Northern Health who was treated for DVT with the new device, following his presentation with an extensive Iliofemoral DVT case in March 2023.
He suffered symptoms such as severe swelling, pain in the left groin and difficulty walking. Initially he opted for conservative management, however after discharge, his symptoms worsened, and he was readmitted two days later.
Following his readmission, Mr Pillay’s case was reviewed by Northern Health’s New Technology Committee, and the Vascular Surgery Unit team offered Mr Pillay treatment using the new technology, which successfully removed the thrombus.
Mr Bayat said the surgery was completed in a single procedure, which is an advantage of this new technology.
“The large thrombus was successfully removed by using the new device and without the use of thrombolytic medication, reducing the risk of severe bleeding,” he said.
“This technology allows us to remove large central clots up to several weeks old, which was much more difficult to achieve with our previous tools.”
Mr Pillay said he opted for the new technology because it was more advanced and carried less risks compared to the other more traditional clot removal procedures.
“The pain I was having in my groin area was immediately gone after the procedure. I was able to walk, limp free, three to four days after the surgery,” Mr Pillay said.
“I saw my surgeon two weeks after the procedure and by that time, my leg returned to its normal size, I had no pain or discomfort and I felt back to normal.”
The Vascular Surgery Unit has since performed the same procedure on two more Northern Health patients with large clots in the central abdominal veins and the subclavian vein.
The use of the INARI ClotTreiver device for removal of a large clot in the subclavian vein was the first use of the device for this particular indication in Australia.
