Mercy Health Physician Offers Bronchial Stenting

Mercy Health – Cincinnati, which provides advanced, compassionate, quality care in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that Mercy Health Physician Mohi Mitiek, MD a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, offers bronchial stenting and endobronchial therapy.

These rare procedures can preserve the lungs of cancer patients who suffer atelectasis, a partial collapse of a lung that occurs when a tumor restricts the amount of air the patient can breathe in, leading to the deflation of tiny air sacs in the lungs called alveoli.

Patients with lung cancer can experience a narrowing or obstruction of the bronchus, the airway that guides air to the lungs. This can leave them short of breath or lead to a condition called post-obstructive pneumonia, symptoms of which include fever, chills, wheezing, coughing and difficulty breathing. Left untreated, these conditions can cause the lung to collapse.

The endobronchial therapy and bronchial stenting procedures, which Dr. Mitiek performs on an outpatient basis, can provide these patients relief, improved quality of life and also keep their lung from collapsing by allowing air to continue to flow into it.

“I perform a CT scan to determine where the blockage and ensure that some air is still getting to the lung. Then, using a laser, I cut away at the tumor to open the airway. If needed, I can place a removable stent in the bronchus. The procedures keep the airway open and keep the lung from collapsing,” says Dr. Mitiek.

“While these procedures are not a cure for the patients’ underlying disease, it does help them regain their ability to breathe and improve their quality of life.”

It’s especially important to keep the lung from collapsing before the patient undergoes cancer treatment.

“If a patient has a collapsed lung and undergoes radiation treatment, that lung will never open again,” says Dr. Mitiek.

With the stent is in place, patients can undergo radiation and chemotherapy to shrink the tumor. Once the tumor has shrunk, Dr. Mitiek can remove the stent.

Since joining Mercy Health Physicians in November 2016, Dr. Mitiek has performed three bronchial/tracheal stenting procedures for patients with a carcinoid tumor, an anaplastic thyroid tumor and tracheitis, a bacterial infection of the trachea.

Dr. Mitiek practices from Mercy Health - Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons, Rookwood, located at 4030 Smith Road, Suite 300, Cincinnati, OH 45209. Call 513-421-3494 to schedule an appointment or for more information.