The Challenges Associated with CLTI- Interventional Cardiologist at Oschner, Zola N'Dandu MD

"Roughly 60% of the patients treated by Zola N’Dandu, MD, an interventional cardiologist and endovascular & advanced chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) specialist at the John Oschner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana, have CLTI, often requiring what he describes as heavy-duty revascularization.

“Close to 10%—perhaps nearer to 20%—of CLTI patients are labeled as no option,” he said. “These folks are facing amputation.”

What physicians—and LimFlow—are doing now is looking for a way to help these no-option patients, creating a new treatment paradigm so that amputation—and the associated challenges—can be avoided.

According to N’Dandu, half the battle is screening patients on time. Often, they come in too late in their disease course and have already progressed to late-stage CLTI. Education within the medical community, he said, is key to surmounting this critical barrier.

Patients need to be screened early and often and then treated aggressively to prevent both peripheral artery disease (PAD) and prevent PAD from progressing to CLTI.

“When patients get to the point of CLTI, mortality is very high,” he said. “We don’t need to wait until patients progress to the point of no return. We need to offer them options early on.”

See the rest of what Zola N’Dandu has to say about PAD and CLTI in the full clip. #HealthTech #MedTech #HealthcareInnovation
"