Heart valve repair without open heart surgery performed for the first time in India at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute

• Surgery performed through catheter based procedure of MitraClip
• 69 year old becomes 1st person in India to get operated on through MItraClip, was suffering from a severely leaking valve leading to breathlessness and heart failure

For the first time in India, a team of doctors led by Dr Ashok Seth successfully performed the catheter based procedure of MitraClip to repair a leaking heart valve without surgery in a 69-years old gentleman who was suffering from repeated heart failure and in whom open heart surgery was not possible. The patient had previous coronary artery bypass surgery 13-years ago and recently his heart was getting enlarged due to a severely leaking valve leading to breathlessness and heart failure. Till now, open heart surgery with repair or replacement of the valve had been the only possible treatment for such patients in India but it is often high risk and may not be beneficial. Similar,was the case in this patient and so he underwent the MitraClip procedure successfully.

Dr Ashok Seth, Chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute said, “The MitraClip is a novel catheter based non-surgical repair of the mitral valve inside the heart and is performed in the Cath Lab like angioplasty. Special catheters are inserted through a large vein in the groin and the catheter is passed from the right chamber of the heart to the left chamber of the heart by puncturing the partition between 2 upper chambers of the heart called atria. Then under echocardiography and X-ray guidance a clip is put on the leaking mitral valve to decrease the leak which improves the condition of patient. The patient is normally ready to be discharged in 24-48 hours’ time.”

The pulmonary valve is one of four valves that regulate and administer blood flow in the heart. This valve is situated between one of the heart’s lowerchambers i.e. right ventricle and a big artery carrying impure blood to lungs for purification, i.e. pulmonary artery.

Recently the COAPT trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, USA, demonstrated the benefits of MitraClip procedure not only in improving the well-being and symptoms of the patients but also improving their survival during next 2 years of follow-up. With the introduction of MitraClip to India, we hope to benefit a number of patients who are gradually deteriorating from leaking mitral valve despite medications and are unsuitable for valve replacement surgery.

MitraClip mitral valve repair without open heart surgery is one of the innovative scientific advancements of recent times. A few years ago it was unbelievable to think that a valve which lies within the heart could be repaired by cathetersin an angioplasty like procedure without opening the heart and putting the patient on cardiopulmonary bypass. A leaking mitral valve affects nearly 10% of the population who have coronary artery disease, heart attacks or bypass surgery and continues to increase with age. The continuously leaking valves put pressure on the heart causing breathlessness.If left untreated, it leads to enlargement of the heart, heart failure and death. These patients are either at a high risk for valve surgery or do not benefit from it.