Valley Presbyterian Hospital announces opening of premier Amputation Prevention Center

Mar 4 2010

Valley Presbyterian Hospital is proud to announce the planned red-carpet grand-opening on March 17^th of its premier Amputation Prevention Center (APC), an integrated limb-preservation center that is one of the nation’s only facilities of its kind.

“We have to shift our focus from expensive urgent care, such as amputations, to less costly preventive care, which diabetics need most.”

The center utilizes a rare and innovative team-based approach that pairs podiatrists and vascular surgeons under the same roof - and has significant ramifications for the growing number of people in the country who are diagnosed with diabetes.

“This Center represents a major advancement in this crucially needed area and brings together some of the very best talent, teamwork and tools in the country,” said Gustavo Valdespino, President and CEO of Valley Presbyterian Hospital. “There is no doubt that the exemplary expertise and efforts at this Center will greatly improve success rates for limb preservation.”

In the U.S., nearly 24 million people – or 7.8 percent of the U.S. population – have diabetes. California alone has nearly 3 million people with diabetes, meaning that more than 1 out of 10 adult Californians has diabetes. And people with diabetes are far more likely to undergo foot or leg amputations because many have circulation and nerve problems, which make it easy to get ulcers and infections that may lead to amputation, according to the American Diabetes Association.

It’s estimated that up to 15 percent of diabetic patients will develop conditions threatening amputation during their lifetime. But the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates almost 85 percent of the nearly 100,000 yearly amputations in the U.S. are preventable.

Encouraged by the success at other facilities pairing podiatrists with vascular surgeons to reduce amputation rates, George Andros, M.D., a vascular surgeon and proponent of podiatry, Lee C. Rogers, DPM, past Director of the Amputation Prevention Center at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, and Nicholas J. Bevilacqua, DPM, a past attending surgeon at Broadlawns, have brought that approach to Valley Presbyterian Hospital.

The 4,000-square-foot Amputation Prevention Center at Valley Presbyterian Hospital includes leading-edge technology and equipment including one of the region’s only hydroscalpels (to treat diabetic foot wounds), 3D wound cameras, skin oxygen sensors, thermal imaging, and a designated advanced OR suite. The Amputation Prevention Center began serving patients January 1, 2010. Drs. Rogers and Bevilacqua serve as Associate Medical Directors and Dr. Andros serves as Medical Director of the Center.

“You have to focus on the future, and the future is this: Diabetic foot care needs to be specialized care provided by a team of diabetic podiatrists and vascular surgeons because there’s no other model that has worked as well,” says Dr. Andros. “We have to shift our focus from expensive urgent care, such as amputations, to less costly preventive care, which diabetics need most.”

SOURCE Valley Presbyterian Hospital