Alternative to Open Heart Surgery: Interventional Cardiologists Help the Faint of Heart without Surgery
Today in the United States, heart problems are one of the leading causes of death and affect millions of people’s daily routines and lifestyles. These problems include mitral regurgitation and one in five people over the age of 55 has a problem with their mitral valve. Mitral regurgitation is a condition in which the heart's mitral valve doesn't close tightly, allowing blood to flow backward into the heart. The heart will leak fluid and cause weakening of the heart. Many patients with this problem experience fatigue, exercise intolerance, shortness of breath and swelling. In order to avoid the dangers of open heart surgery and long recovery times, a noninvasive technique has been created to get patients back on their feet and blood flowing properly.
Interventional cardiologists created an alternative to open heart surgery by developing a mitral valve clip. To alleviate mitral valve regurgitation cardiologists insert a catheter into the patient's groin into the femoral artery that travels up into the mitral valve. The clip is fed through this catheter, where it finally grasps and tightens the valves' leaflets, effectively preventing blood from leaking. The clip remains in place while the catheter is removed, the entire procedure taking approximately two hours and recovery a few weeks. The procedure is good for the elderly and those with weaker hearts, when traditional surgery is more dangerous.
The mitral valve clip has been inserted into several patients with promising results. Josephine Herndon, age 77, was one of the first people to undergo this operation. Before the placement of the mitral valve clip into her heart, she was unable to walk around supermarkets and complete essential daily tasks without having a shortness of breath and having to sit down and rest. After only a few weeks, Herndon was able to move around almost as good as new. With the positive outcomes, this procedure is currently being investigated in clinical trials in 38 hospitals across the country.
This article is of particular interest to me because of studies of the cardiovascular system we have done in class, as well as this medical device being so important and useful. Being in biomedical engineering, new medical devices hold certain significance to us all. With the breakthrough of any device, more knowledge of the biomedical engineering field is gained and can be built upon to build even more elaborate and complex systems that have the potential to help millions of people in the future!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0105-alternative_to_open_heart_surgery.htm
Katherine Wright
VTPP 435-502
Interventional cardiologists created an alternative to open heart surgery by developing a mitral valve clip. To alleviate mitral valve regurgitation cardiologists insert a catheter into the patient's groin into the femoral artery that travels up into the mitral valve. The clip is fed through this catheter, where it finally grasps and tightens the valves' leaflets, effectively preventing blood from leaking. The clip remains in place while the catheter is removed, the entire procedure taking approximately two hours and recovery a few weeks. The procedure is good for the elderly and those with weaker hearts, when traditional surgery is more dangerous.
The mitral valve clip has been inserted into several patients with promising results. Josephine Herndon, age 77, was one of the first people to undergo this operation. Before the placement of the mitral valve clip into her heart, she was unable to walk around supermarkets and complete essential daily tasks without having a shortness of breath and having to sit down and rest. After only a few weeks, Herndon was able to move around almost as good as new. With the positive outcomes, this procedure is currently being investigated in clinical trials in 38 hospitals across the country.
This article is of particular interest to me because of studies of the cardiovascular system we have done in class, as well as this medical device being so important and useful. Being in biomedical engineering, new medical devices hold certain significance to us all. With the breakthrough of any device, more knowledge of the biomedical engineering field is gained and can be built upon to build even more elaborate and complex systems that have the potential to help millions of people in the future!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0105-alternative_to_open_heart_surgery.htm
Katherine Wright
VTPP 435-502
posted by Katherine.Wright at 11:35 AM
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