A leading-edge surgical procedure to repair
collapsed airways, the first of its kind to
be performed in Upstate New York, was recently
completed at Albany Medical Center.
The surgery, designed to alleviate the
chronic coughing and breathing problems
that accompany a collapsing airway, was
performed by thoracic surgeon Dr. Charles
Bakhos, who reinforced the back wall of the
patient’s trachea with mesh to stabilize the
airway and minimize the possibility of continued
collapse, officials at Albany Med said.
Dr. Bakhos called collapsing airways an
under-recognized condition that is “very
frustrating and debilitating for patients,
like having bronchitis or pneumonia that
never goes away.” The condition occurs in
5-10 percent of patients with significant
respiratory diseases.
The surgical placement of mesh, or tracheoplasty,
is a promising new procedure
that offers certain patients a longer-term
solution than most common treatments, Bakhos
said. He hopes to make the procedure
more readily available in the Capital Region.
The condition of collapsing airway, known
as tracheobronchomalacia, is first treated
with inhalers, medications to loosen up
secretions and antibiotics in the presence
of an infection. Placement of a stent in the
airway can be performed on patients who
don’t respond to medical treatment or whose quality of life is especially compromised.
Stenting, however, can only be temporary,
as it can lead to serious complications over
the long run, Bakhos said.
Colonie resident Tony Cleghorn, 54, Bakhos’s
first patient in the area, is certainly
grateful for his efforts. “Most of my adult life
I’ve had trouble breathing,” said Cleghorn,
a computer programmer. “I’d been to all
kinds of doctors–allergists, pulmonologists,
respiratory specialists. Everyone, myself included,
has been trying to figure this out. Dr.
Bakhos finally identified what was wrong.”
Cleghorn said, “I’m still healing, but I feel
a whole lot better. I can breathe in and out
much more easily. I consider Dr. Bakhos a
miracle worker. He finally solved a problem
I’ve been fighting for years.”
Albany Medical Center, northeastern New
York’s only academic health sciences center,
is one of the largest private employers in the
Capital Region. It incorporates the 734-bed
Albany Medical Center Hospital, which offers
the widest range of medical and surgical services
in the region, and the Albany Medical
College, which trains the next generation
of doctors, scientists and other health care
professionals, and also includes a biomedical
research enterprise and the region’s
largest physicians practice with more than
450 doctors. For more information: www.amc.edu.