Surgeon thomas R. Bernik is midway through an operation in April to unblock a plaque-clogged artery in a patient's leg. A specialist in such procedures at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York, Bernik eschews balloon angioplasty and the use of stents in favor of a novel, catheter-based procedure developed by startup FoxHollow Technologies Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. After administering local anesthesia to patient Ronnie Cutler, Bernik inserts a catheter into the artery of one leg and passes it up and over the abdomen, into the artery of the leg with the lesion. "A year ago she was open," says Bernik, pointing to an X-ray image. "Now she is blocked."
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