A new drug is helping doctors save the toes and fingers of frostbite patients this winter, dramatically reducing the number of amputations needed.
AKRON, Ohio - A new drug is helping doctors save the toes and fingers of frostbite patients this winter, dramatically reducing the number of amputations needed. Akron Children’s Hospital has been using iloprost to treat nearly 20 frostbite patients since December, many of them homeless people suffering through the brutal cold.
Dr. Deepak Ozhathil, a burn surgeon at Akron Children’s Hospital, said the drug has completely changed frostbite treatment outcomes. “By giving Iloprost we’ve been able to completely change the game in terms of frostbite and the resulting amputations,” Ozhathil said. “The number of amputations we’ve had to do this year is dramatically less and the number of patients we’ve had is dramatically more.”The drug opens blood vessels and prevents dangerous clotting in frostbitten tissue. “Iloprost causes your blood vessels to dilate so they get bigger,” Ozhathil said. “In this condition, when there is not enough blood flow getting to those tissues, the blood vessels will get bigger and more blood can get to those tissues. It also stops the platelets from clumping up.” Doctors can give the medication up to 72 hours after a patient arrives, providing a much longer treatment window than older therapies. Success rates have climbed from 60 or 70 percent into the 80 to 90 percent range.“There are about 30 hospitals across the nation that are using it,” Ozhathil said. “As far as I know in Ohio we are one of two hospitals.”This winter has brought an unusually high number of frostbite cases to the hospital. “This winter has been really tough, and we have had a lot more patients this year than we saw all of last year, and we’re not through the winter yet,” Ozhathil said. “I’m expecting we are using Iloprost a lot more before the season is through.” Canada and Europe already use the drug as standard care for frostbite patients. Now it’s saving patients in northeast Ohio.Beloved high school baseball coach dies in UTV crash; man charged with vehicular homicide, DUICase closed in deadly Ashtabula County Deputy shooting of man on motorcycle
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