Vascular surgeons in Novosibirsk have mastered a new surgical technique.

Vascular surgeons at the Novosibirsk Regional Clinical Hospital performed the first operation in Siberia using both incisions and endoscopy. The new technique will help avoid amputation in cases of severe vascular disease. The operation was performed on a man suffering from obstructive atherosclerosis of the lower extremities. The 65-year-old resident of the Novosibirsk region had already lost a leg due to atherosclerosis. The technique mastered by Novosibirsk surgeons made it possible to avoid amputation this time. Incisions typically used during surgeries are made separately from endoscopy. In this case, due to the specific course of the patient’s disease, it was impossible to use these technologies separately. A catheter—a 2.5-centimeter-long, 5-millimeter-diameter balloon—had to be inserted into the narrowed blood vessel to prevent the vessel from narrowing and to normalize the blood supply to the leg. The four-and-a-half-hour operation was successful. By the second day, the patient was confidently moving around the hospital ward. Surgeons began preparing other patients for a similar operation.