Cardiovascular Institute of the South becomes first in US to use program to treat PAD

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The Cardiovascular Institute of the South said peripheral vascular, artery, and vein disease affects more than 50 million people in the US.

Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Pradeep Nair said it’s important to know about your symptoms to lessen your risk of getting your legs amputated.

“PAD is a very common disorder that afflicts virtually, in the current contemporary era, almost 26 million people, said Nair. “It’s really important to seek the care of an interventionist because amputation has a serious sequel with mortality. In two years, a patient with a major amputation has at least a 40% chance of dying.”

FreedomFlow is a new and improved medical technology platform to help patients fight peripheral artery disease also known as PAD. Nair said FreedomFlow is designed to help clear plaque and blockage in the arteries of the legs.

“When you look at blockages they are made up of a variety of plaques are the substances within the arteries. They can be soft, they can be mixed with soft and a little bit of hard plaque. And that can be very hard,” Nair said.

Nair said patients’ recovery time is significantly faster than a normal procedure.

“When you do the procedure it can last between an hour or the complexity. Vase majority patients go home the same day within four to six hours,” Nair said.

Nair said the treatment is a better approach to give physicians a more effective way to treat PAD and have better patient outcomes.

“This is one of the devices to help improve patient outcomes. Our main primary objective is to help save patients limbs, which is, in essence, to save lives,” Nair said.

Nair said to speak with your healthcare provider to see if this procedure is right for you.