Regenerative reconstruction gives patients alternative to amputation
Eric Martin, DO, the chief of Vascular Surgery at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria crafted a method that provides reliable outcomes for limb salvage. Photo Courtesy of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans have to go through an amputation. The reasons for doing that can be almost as numerous.
Amputation is considered a last resort, but modern medicine is providing other options. That includes regenerative reconstruction, which involves some of the most unexpected things such as fish skin, pig intestine, pig bladder, and cow tendon as a treatment for severe bacterial infection, traumatic crushed limbs, and lower limb ulcers that have become infected and spread throughout the body.
A doctor who performs these type of procedures joins the 21st today along with one of his patients.
GUESTS
Dr. Eric Martin
Chief of Vascular Surgery, OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center
Wilma Williams
Recipient of regenerative reconstruction