HOPKINS-ISRAELI HEART SPECIALISTS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON ARIEL SHARON’S HEART CATHETERIZATION

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Office of Corporate Communications
Media Contact:  David March
410-955-1534; [email protected]
January 4, 2006

* * MEDIA ADVISORY * * 

HOPKINS-ISRAELI HEART SPECIALISTS AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON ARIEL SHARON’S HEART CATHETERIZATION

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to have a minimally invasive heart procedure performed at 1:30 a.m. ET, Thursday, Jan. 5, to close a small hole inside his heart’s upper chambers.  The hole allows small amounts of blood to bypass the lungs and flow un-oxygenated to the rest of the body, and is believed to have contributed to formation of a blood clot and Sharon’s mild stroke on Dec. 18. 

The procedure takes from one to two hours, and will be performed at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.  A team of interventional cardiologists, including Avram Lorber, M.D., of Rambam Medical Center, the primary teaching hospital of Israel’s Technion Institute medical school, will thread a catheter through a vein in the groin directly into the heart and site of the hole.  At the end of the catheter will be a small, double umbrella-like device that can be opened on both sides of the hole, sealing it tight.  Risks from the procedure are considered very low (less than 1 percent), and include perforation of the heart wall during insertion of the catheter and postoperative infection.

Available to the media for comment by phone and live, remote videolink from Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, Md., are two leading interventional cardiologists, with close ties to Rambam Medical Center and the Technion. 

Rafael Beyar, M.D., a visiting professor of medicine at Hopkins, where he trained, is director of interventional cardiology and president at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.  He is also the former dean of the Technion’s medical school. 

Also available is Jon Resar, M.D., associate professor of medicine and director of the adult cardiac catheterization laboratory at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute.  He has performed the procedure on scores of patients.

Both are available all day Thursday, Jan. 5, and Friday, Jan. 6, 2006

- JHM -