INNOVATIONS
Dr. Julio Sanguilly III uses
a video monitor to perform
surgery using a catheter to
clean out an artery.
PHOTO PROVIDED
Surgical procedures save
60
limbs, improves lives
Aggressive approach, multiple techniques
offer alternatives to amputation
BY GREG GARDNER
The limb salvage team at Martin Health System
in Stuart saves lives one leg at a time. With
150,000 Americans losing limbs annually, largely
due to diabetes and arterial disease, the problem
is epidemic.
“Fifty percent of diabetics will have an amputation without
being evaluated to see if there is vascular disease that can be
corrected,” says Dr. Julio Sanguilly III, who has built the program
at MHS over the past five years. “You save a limb, you
save a life. We go the extra mile to try and prevent amputation.
Fifty percent of the amputation patients will never walk
again and half will die within 18 months. You never get better
afterward. If it costs more to amputate a leg than to prevent
it, then it only makes sense. We are going to make a difference
in this community.”
Sanguilly, who trains teams from as far away as California,
says amputations cost the U.S. $10.6 billion a year — more
than colon, pancreatic or breast cancer. “Being told your only
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