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The cardiac surgeons at Mercy are proud to offer patients a novel therapy using CorMatrix ECM, a unique material used as a patch to repair heart tissue in selected heart surgeries. This special patch material is made of real tissue and promotes the regeneration of the patient's own cells for surgical wound healing.
How does it work? CorMatrix ECM® is an extracellular matrix structure which is retrieved from the thin lining of the small intestine of a pig. This lining, once processed to remove all of the pig cells, leaves only a complex weave of collagen which is common to all humans and animals.
After sterilization and testing, CorMatrix ECM® becomes an exceptionally strong but a very pliable, thin sheet of collagen that can be stitched onto the human heart and tissues to stimulate healing and re-growth. It acts as a sort of scaffolding onto which the patient's own cells grow to cover the collagen matrix. The result of this regenerative healing is a permanent repair with the patient's own tissue, a property unique to CorMatrix ECM®.
What is the benefit? Traditional surgical patches, which include synthetic materials, are not able to promote the regeneration properties of the CorMatrix patch. Because these synthetic materials are foreign to the human body, they may also cause an inflammatory response. Because CorMatrix ECM® is natural tissue, it stimulates the body to grow new, functional cardiovascular tissue within the patient's own body.
Extracellular matrix is a normal component of living tissue. No side effects attributable to extracellular matrix have been reported. An estimated 500,000 patients worldwide have been implanted with a manufactured extracellular matrix device for repairs done in all areas of the body. Nearly 45,000 CorMatrix ECM® implants have been completed since the first product became commercially available for cardiovascular use in 2006.
If you have been told you need open heart surgery, ask your surgeon if you could benefit from the use CorMatrix ECM®.
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