University of Colorado Hospital offers
new high cholesterol treatment
The University of Colorado Hospital is now offering a new medical treatment
for people with extremely high levels of cholesterol who have not had success
lowering cholesterol through prescription drugs and diet.
The new treatment involves the mechanical removal of low-density lipoproteins,
or “bad cholesterol,” from the blood stream via a technique that
is selective for LDL particles, while maintaining the “good” high-density
proteins in the blood stream. The machine is called the Liposorber® from
Kaneka and works much like a dialysis. University of Colorado Hospital is
the only provider to offer treatments using the Liposorber in the Rocky Mountain
Region.
“The wonderful thing about this treatment is it gives patients another
option to better their lives when prescriptions and diet alone haven’t
been able to effectively help them,” said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, director
of the Lipid Clinic at University of Colorado Hospital and president-elect
of the American Heart Association. “The Liposorber treatment can lower
LDL levels by 75 to 80 percent after just one treatment – after which
patients report feeling better and their quality of life is vastly improved.”
The LDL apheresis typically takes two to three hours every other week. Blood
is withdrawn through a needle in a vein in one arm and returned to the body
via the other. The machine then separates plasma from the blood and the plasma
is routed to one of two adsorption columns that remove the LDL. Once the
LDL is removed, the plasma is recombined with the blood and returned to the
body.
Eckel added that the lowering of cholesterol after treatment is not maintained
over time and patients have to return for treatment every two weeks.
“High cholesterol is the result of a metabolic malfunction in the body.
This treatment does not correct the underlying problem permanently – it
simply offers another option to patients who have not been able to sufficiently
lower their cholesterol levels to healthy levels through other traditional
treatments,” Eckel said.
For more information about high cholesterol treatment at the University of
Colorado Hospital, call (303) 848-2650.
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