At the practical course preceding the second Romanian-Hungarian CTO Workshop held in Oradea on November 14 and 15, staff members of the Cardiology and Heart Surgery Clinic performed an orbital atherectomy, which course participants were able to observe as if they had been present in the operating theater. This procedure is performed with a special device consisting of an electrically powered control unit and a drilling tool moving in an orbital path, on which there is a grinding head covered with diamond particles, which is called a corona. The corona is inserted into the narrowed section of the artery and it gradually grinds away the calcified plaques on the artery wall with rapid orbital motion. The plaque deposits are thus broken down into tiny particles and are washed out of the artery by the bloodstream.
- This is a very special procedure for treating calcified coronary artery stenosis and one of the most complex and difficult percutaneous coronary interventions, as it requires opening up a hard, old, and very often long blockage. The procedure was first introduced in Hungary three or four years ago at various locations, including the Cardiology and Heart Surgery Clinic of the Clinical Center of the University of Debrecen. Today, we routinely perform 15 to 20 such procedures annually-said Tibor Szűk, an assistant professor and specialist at the Cardiology and Heart Surgery Clinic of the Clinical Center of the University of Debrecen.
During the two days of the Oradea congress, two separate catheter interventions were performed to treat chronic total occlusion (CTO) of the coronary artery by staff members of the Debrecen clinic Tibor Szűk and Ferenc Győry in their state-of-the-art hybrid laboratory, which had been inaugurated in 2024. The surgeries were broadcast to the congress venue in Oradea, where the professional audience could follow the procedures live.
- The staff members of our clinic have significant experience in both orbital atherectomy and CTO procedures, recognized internationally, while they have also been actively involved in teaching their colleagues in Oradea previously. They regularly get invited to prestigious international conferences on CTO interventions and often perform live broadcast surgeries- said Tibor Szűk.
There were approximately a hundred and fifty specialists participating in this recent interactive practical course, most of whom were primarily Romanian and Hungarian interventional cardiologists. In addition, there were as many as 22 different countries represented by the international guests invited to the conference from a variety of countries in Europe as well as from Mexico and South Africa.
Press Center - CzA