HSE will not fund the €1,200 for the pneumatic compression device, says vascular surgeon, writes MICHELLE McDONAGH
IRISH PATIENTS who are facing amputation are being urged by a Galway-based consultant to approach local charities to fund a simple, non-invasive therapy he has proven can save their legs – at a fraction of the cost of amputation.
Sherif Sultan, a vascular surgeon at the Western Vascular Institute at University College Hospital Galway, says he has given up trying to get the HSE to fund this limb-saving therapy for patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI).
This condition involves a severe obstruction of the arteries which seriously decreases blood flow to the hands, feet and legs, leading to severe pain and even skin ulcers or sores.
His research paper on the use of the sequential compression biomechanical device in patients with critical limb ischemia over a four-year period from 2004 to 2009 has just been published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
The study has concluded that the device is a cost-effective and clinically efficient solution for the treatment of high-risk patients with non-reconstructible lower limb arterial disease.
His findings show that it provides ameliorated amputation-free survival, rapid relief of rest pain, and enhanced rates of ulcer healing.
Mr Sultan said that through the use of the device, he and his team had saved the limbs of 171 patients who were unsuitable for any other intervention.
The pneumatic compression device is specifically designed to increase arterial blood flow to the lower ischemic limbs.
“Patients rent the machine for 90 days and the cost of having the therapy at home over this period is €1,200. Compare this to the cost of an amputation. The surgery alone costs almost €29,000 and rehab, a prosthetic limb and wheelchair access modifications to the home cost another €60,000, so you are looking at an overall cost of around €90,000 compared with €1,200. And of course, nobody wants to lose a leg,” he said.
“All of these patients have limb-threatening ischaemia with intractable pain, ulceration and gangrene, and have been referred for amputation.
“This is their only option of getting out of pain and keeping their leg. We know these patients are living on borrowed time and will die within two to three years.
“We just want to give them the best quality of life they can have during that time, not a life of pain attached to a morphine drip,” he added.
Donegal is the only HSE region covering the cost of the therapy for its patients, and in Galway and the Midlands, there are more than 70 people on the waiting list for treatment.
The surgeon said he was so tired of banging his head against the brick wall of the HSE that he was urging patients to go to their local charities and parish councils to help raise the funds to pay for the treatment. This has already happened in a number of cases, he said.