IU School of Medicine Cardiologist Holds Patent To Increase Efficiency In Operating Room

INDIANAPOLIS--Necessity is the mother of invention. But necessity in the cardiac catheterization laboratory can cause creativity to reach a new high and the efforts of Keith L. March, M.D., Ph.D., are a perfect example of the maxim.

Dr. March, associate professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, has received patent approval for his fourth upgrade - called "continuation in part" in patent lingo - of a device used to close the hole in a vessel used as the entry point for a catheter during heart catheterizations.

He has created a device to solve a problem that arises after a catheter is removed from the femoral artery where the cardiologist inserts the catheter, threading it through the artery to the heart. When the procedure is completed and the catheter removed, a hole remains in the artery. To close the hole, cardiologists traditionally applied hand pressure to the artery until a clot developed at the site. This technique may require that a person apply pressure by hand for 30 to 60 minutes. Dr. March thought that a less time-consuming and more efficient method should be available.

In 1994, he and his associates received the initial patent for a device that, as Dr. March puts it, "sews without seeing."

The intent of their initial research was to develop a device that would close a hole in the vessel that one could not see without doing surgery, Dr. March said. The vessel repair device he and his colleagues developed and first patented in 1994, uses a group of needles that surrounds the hole in the vessel and then advance the suture thread through the vessel until it may be captured and tied together to close the hole, all without the need for direct vision.

Since the first patent, there have been further modifications made by Dr. March and his research team resulting in three additional patents.

Dr. March now holds 10 patents, all with the central theme of transferring technology from the lab to the bedside.

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