Although the jury is still out about whether EECP is as good as more established heart treatments, some patients clearly can benefit. I was getting angina just from sitting in a chair watching TV, Cherney says. Cherney s doctors recommended bypass surgery or a balloon angioplasty to take care of blockages in his heart arteries. But he was nervous about complications from the operations. Fla. The therapy has been proved effective in reducing angina in most heart patients, with few side effects and a lower cost than other alternatives.
Patients lie on a table while the cuffs squeeze their legs for an hour.
They must go five days a week for seven weeks. The theory is that forcing blood to the heart reopens small, unused blood vessels that serve to detour blood around the blocked artery. Some researchers say EECP leads to growth of new vessels, but that remains unproven. We ve had patient after patient come in who were told, There s nothing more we can do for you, says Pyrros, who bought an EECP machine two years ago. EECP has many skeptics, especially among heart specialists who favor medicines, bypass surgery and angioplasty, which involves inflating a balloon to open clogged arteries.