St. Luke’s Medical Center First in Texas to Implant AIGISRx® R Fully Bioresorbable Antibacterial Envelope
St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC), home of the Texas Heart® Institute, is the first center in Texas to implant the new AIGISRx R Fully Bioresorbable Antibacterial Envelope created to significantly reduce the chance of infection following surgery to implant devices, such as pacemakers and cardioverter defibrillators.
The device, intended to hold Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices (CIEDs) securely in place while providing a stable environment during surgery, contains antimicrobial agents that are released locally into the tissue to help reduce Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) associated with CIED implantation.
“We’re extremely excited about the potential that AIGISRx R offers patients and also being one of the first supporters of this new technology,” said Alberto Lopez, MD, who performed the first implantation at SLMC. “After hundreds of implants of the AIGIS device, I believe that this next generation of antibacterial envelope technology not only provides device stabilization and infection reduction, but now has the added benefit of being fully reabsorbable, which is a significant improvement that fulfills the demands of the medical community.”
Multiple studies have shown that patients at high risk for CIED infection, who receive the AIGISRx R Antibacterial Envelope, had 70 to 100 percent fewer device infections than similar patients who do not receive the AIGISRx.
Patients with SSIs following CIED procedures spend an average of two extra weeks in the hospital, undergo repeat surgical procedures to treat the infection, and cost the facility an average of $72,485. Additionally, such patients experience significant increases in morbidity and mortality, with one-year mortality rates of 26.5 to 35.1 percent, and three-year mortality rates of up to 50 percent, depending on device type.
