A Real Gem: New Technology Uses Diamonds to Open Blocked Arteries

William “Eddie” O’Neal’s legs hurt when he walked.

“I couldn’t walk 50 feet without having to stop and rest,” the 65-year-old Dexter, Mo., man recalls. “My legs would tighten up and start hurting.”

As a night manager at the Super Town & Country supermarket in Dexter, Eddie spends a lot of time walking through the store to supervise employees and make sure the shelves are stocked.

O’Neal, who has diabetes, endured the pain in his legs for about a year. “I was kind of scared because I thought it was related to some heart problems I had,” says O’Neal who underwent heart bypass surgery a few years ago. The true cause of his pain was different than he expected – a buildup of plaque deposits in the arteries in his legs.

On Feb. 27, Southeast Missouri Hospital cardiovascular surgeon Randy Brown, MD, FACS, cleared the blockages in both of Eddie’s legs with the use of the new Diamondback 360™ Orbital Atherectomy System. O’Neal was the first patient at Southeast to undergo the Diamondback procedure.

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year, Diamondback is the latest technology in the battle to clear plaque blockages caused by peripheral arterial disease or PAD.

Southeast Missouri Hospital is one of only a handful of hospitals in Missouri with this technology.

The device features a diamond-coated orbital crown which functions like an off-center drill bit to remove plaque. A thin guide wire is inserted into the patient’s artery. When the surgeon encounters the blockage, he pumps a foot pedal to rotate the wire at incredible speeds. As the crown rotates and orbit increases, centrifugal force presses the diamond crown against the lesion or plaque, removing a small amount of plaque with each orbit.

The surgeon can adjust the speed, which ranges from 80,000 to 200,000 rpms. By adjusting the speed of the orbiting crown, surgeons can control the depth of the “sandblasting” to avoid damaging the arterial wall

“It’s like sanding wood versus carving it,” notes Dr. Brown.

“The Diamondback crown is perfect for removing all kinds of plaque, including the harder, calcified plaque, because of the diamond-coated crown’s ability to sand away particles little by little,” Dr. Brown explains. The plaque is sanded down into fine particles that are 75 percent smaller than red blood cells and can be easily absorbed in the body without risking further blockages.

“Hundreds of people in the Cape Girardeau region could benefit from this type of procedure,” Dr. Brown says. “It is a particularly good option for patients who are diagnosed with blockages below the knees.”

Before his surgery, O’Neal worried that he might have to quit his job. “That wouldn’t have set well with me,” he says.

Four days after surgery, he was back on the job with the rural grocery chain where he has been employed for 26 years (including the last four years at the Dexter store). He credits the procedure for restoring his health.

“I’m feeling good now,” he says.