Brazilian Government Brings Two Los Angeles Surgeons to South America to Perform Specialized Surgery

    /24-7PressRelease/ - BEVERLY HILLS, CA, June 27, 2008 - Two Los Angeles surgeons, the father a neurosurgeon and the son a plastic surgeon, were recently brought to Recife, Brazil by that country's national government. In a landmark case, Brazil's government flew the surgery team to South America to perform specialized breathing surgery on a local patient, 25 year-old Marcos Jos de Oliveira.

The surgical team of Krieger and Krieger has developed an advanced procedure to help patients who have suffered certain spinal cord or nerve injuries. Many of these patients are confined to a ventilator to help with breathing. With Krieger and Krieger's breathing surgery, these patients have the opportunity to breathe without the use of a mechanical ventilator.

Their procedure works to attach a healthy nerve to a nonworking or injured phrenic nerve, which in turn stimulates the diaphragm to pull oxygen into the lungs. The procedure uses a pacemaker to stimulate the phrenic nerve. "We transfer a good and functioning nerve to the nonworking phrenic nerve so that the breathing muscle can be properly stimulated to contract," said Beverly Hills plastic surgery specialist Dr. Lloyd Krieger.

In Brazil, the patient Marcos Jos de Oliveira was injured by a gunshot to the neck and spinal cord. The shooting was an act of random violence. His family filed suit against the Brazilian government under the theory that the government is obligated to provide all medical care, even very advanced treatments, to a citizen it failed to protect from random violence. The case made it to Brazil's supreme court, which ruled for the family. The Brazilian government then flew the U.S. surgery team to South America to perform its procedure.

The surgeons did the procedure to place a pacemaker on the nerve supplying Marcos's diaphragm on April 30, 2008. The surgery did not require a nerve graft as the pacemaker worked to make the breathing muscle move without this additional surgery. "The procedure appears to have been successful," said neurosurgeon Dr. Abbott Krieger. "But we will have to wait a few weeks to allow swelling to go down to confirm that the pacemaker is stimulating smooth breathing. Marcos will then go through a training program to adjust to breathing with the internal pacemaker instead of the external respirator."

The goal is to allow this patient suffering from quadriplegia to breathe with a diaphragm pacemaker rather than a ventilator. This should permit him to sit upright rather than flat, to be mobile in a wheelchair, to speak, and to use a computer. "Marcos has a devastating injury, but our hope is that the recent procedure will allow him to greatly improve his quality of life," concludes Dr. Abbott Krieger.

Both Drs. Lloyd Krieger and Abbott Krieger are based at Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills, California. The Los Angeles cosmetic surgery center and these surgeon have been featured in the local, national, and international media. Many stories have presented their innovative techniques for tummy tuck and liposuction. Recent stories have appeared on CNBC, Access Hollywood, Univision, Telemundo, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Elle, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Los Angeles Daily News, Star, KTLA Morning News, InTouch Weekly, Life & Style, French Television, Japan's Chocolat Siene Magazine, Mexico City's Reforma Magazine, and Britain's Daily Mail and Sunday Express newspapers and Grazia Magazine, as well as media from Sweden, Australia, Denmark, and Australia.

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