Newark Hospital Pioneers ‘Super’ Oxygen Therapy For Heart Attacks

NEWARK, NJ — Newark Beth Israel Medical Center has set a milestone as the first and only hospital in New Jersey using “supersaturated oxygen therapy” to treat heart attack patients.

According to hospital administrators, the cutting-edge treatment is an option for patients who suffer a heart attack caused by a complete blockage of the left-anterior descending coronary artery (LAD), which supplies a large portion of blood to the heart muscle.

Here’s how it works, administrators said:

“Cardiologists deliver high levels of dissolved oxygen (seven to 10 times the normal level) directly into the damaged heart muscle to greatly improve blood flow and reduce irreversible damage. The procedure is performed within six hours of the initial heart attack and within minutes of successfully opening the artery through angioplasty and stenting.”

According to the American Heart Association, up to 30 percent of heart attack patients develop heart failure within one year, and a diagnosis of heart failure carries a more than 50 percent mortality rate at five years.

Studies show that the use of supersaturated oxygen therapy has been associated with improved one-year clinical outcomes, including lower rates of death and new onset heart failure or heart failure hospitalizations.

The first procedure at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center was performed on Nov. 7 by Khalil Kaid, director of interventional cardiology.

The new “minimally invasive” procedure has found a fan in Kaid.

“Now our cardiologists can use supersaturated oxygen therapy to target the heart muscle with even more precision, and prevent severe damage which often leads to heart failure,” Kaid said.

Newark Beth Israel, a RWJBarnabas Health facility, has performed more than 1,100 heart transplants over the past three decades.

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