Cardiac and vascular health issues can be fatal if left untreated. Your body needs a natural flow of blood through the vessels. However, one vessel’s malfunction is enough to contact your doctor before the issue escalates to a chronic condition. Dr. Gary P Jones and his team of experts in cardiovascular diseases offer their patients comprehensive treatment options to promote their health. Dealing with a range of illnesses from PDA, atherosclerosis and wound care. Cardiovascular experts will help manage your condition’s symptoms.
What are some of the medical conditions dealt with by Louisiana Cardiovascular and Thoracic Institute specialists?
Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)
PDA is a common congenital heart defect characterized by an abnormal connection between your aorta and the pulmonary artery. Commonly, the weakness is a persistent opening that gives way to your poorly oxygenated blood, allowing it to flow in the wrong direction. You are likely to develop a life-threatening cardiac problem when your blood vessels deprive your heart of oxygen. The deprivation also weakens your heart muscles making you susceptible to heart failure.
Does PDA have noticeable symptoms?
Though a pediatrician can detect the condition when the child is born, a small PDA is hard to notice. However, a specialist can diagnose the heart defect in later years when the organ continues to grow in size. To diagnose a PDA, your doctor will perform various physical examinations and diagnostics to check your symptoms’ causes. He could also request other tests like a chest X-ray to evaluate your heart defect.
Depending on your PDA’s severity, your doctor could recommend he takes time to evaluate your condition. He will either prescribe medications to close or reduce swelling or recommend a surgical procedure to close the PDA.
Surgical Services
Though a surgical procedure is usually the last resort to restore a medical condition, your surgeon can only solve some of your chronic conditions by open surgery. The surgery also helps restore your health by minimizing your reliance on transfusions and chronic-care interventions.
Your surgeon will schedule you up for surgery when there are no health improvements after trying several other treatments like lifestyle changes and medications. However, he will immediately conduct surgery if you have a severe or urgent condition to repair your blood vessels or heart’s damage.
Wound care
Did you know that an untreated wound could lead to tissue death and amputation of a limb? Wound care is a specialized treatment to keep your non-healing wounds like diabetes foot ulcers clean, reducing the ulcer’s growth chances and preventing it from getting infected. When left untreated, an infected foot ulcer can cause limb loss, gangrene or necrosis. Therefore, to save your limb from amputation, your doctor will recommend you check out with him for a personalized wound care plan
While taking care of your wound, your doctor will remove the older bandages, clean your ulcer then checks for any unusual signs of infection or changes. He will then take a picture of your wound for future comparisons, remove dead tissues, apply medication, then re-bandage the wound.
Contact your doctor when you start noticing you are experiencing unusual changes in your breathing or a wound that does not seem to improve after several treatments. Book an online appointment today or call the professionals at Louisiana Cardiovascular and Thoracic Institute for treatment of cardiovascular and vascular infections.