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Ohio Heart News
Ohio Heart Physicians Perform First Procedure In the Region to Close Perivalvular Leak in the Heart
Jul 30th 2008
Cincinnati—Physicians at The Christ Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center performed the region’s first successful closure of a heart valve leak using an Amplatzer closure device and 3-dimensional image-guided technology. The patient, a 47 year old male, is doing well.
The patient had a hole in the tissue of his heart caused by a ruptured suture from a previous prosthetic valve surgery. Such ruptures, or leaks, are typically closed during repeat surgery with a simple suture. The patient, however, was not a surgical candidate, due to a severe bleeding disorder. As a result of the leakage, he developed severe heart failure and did not respond to usual medical therapy.
Ohio Heart Physicians, Wojciech Mazur, M.D., Teri Stewart-Dehner M.D., Joseph Choo, M.D., joined Robert H. Beekman, III, M.D., to perform a cardiac catheterization. During this procedure, a two-millimeter incision was made in the groin area, and a catheter was threaded through the veins to the heart and inserted through the hole adjacent to the artificial valve. Two Amplatzer devices were then advanced through the catheter and inserted side-by-side to seal the hole. The AMPLATZER® Septal Occluder is a wire mesh, made from an alloy of nickel and titanium that is shaped into two flat discs and a middle, or "waist" to fit the defect size. There were no complications.
“This was a life-saving procedure,” says Dr. Mazur. “Had we not intervened, death would have been imminent for the patient. His hemodynamic status (blood flow) is greatly improved.”