Revolutionary New Treatment to Unclog Arteries

May 18, 2005 — -- A revolutionary new treatment is being used in hospitals across the country to unclog arteries in the leg, and researchers say it may eventually be used to open arteries in the heart.

Bill McLanahan -- one of the estimated 12 million Americans who suffers from peripheral vascular disease, or hardening of the arteries in the extremities -- normally would have undergone an angioplasty to unblock the artery in his left leg.

But the procedure, in which a balloon is used to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels, stretches and damages the artery wall and, in the leg, can trigger another blockage within months.

So McLanahan tried something very different -- a new, minimally invasive procedure that actually removes plaque from the artery using a miniature drill. The drill's blade cuts the plaque, which is then pushed into an extended nose cone and pulled out of the body.

The device is inserted through a tiny puncture in the groin area. Continuous X-ray images guide the doctor as the drill is threaded through the leg.

"The cutter is spinning at 8,000 times per minute," said Dr. James McKinsey, site chief of the division of vascular surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Patients are given only a local anesthetic, and the procedure is done within 15 minutes.

Later this year, doctors will try using the procedure to remove plaque from the arteries around the heart as an alternative to cardiac angioplasty and stents.

"In coronary arteries, stents do a really good job in about 80 percent of the cases we're presented with," said Dr. Richard Kuntz of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "And this device offers the promise to address the remaining 20 percent."

Nearly 250,000 Americans a year could benefit from the new procedure, having plaque removed from arteries in the heart the way it's now being removed from arteries in the leg.

ABC News' John McKenzie filed this report for "World News Tonight."