A 77-year-old patient was implanted with a first-of-its-kind valve in his heart at a city hospital. He has resumed his normal routine since, his doctors said.
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The patient was unfit for open heart surgery. He had also developed severe calcified iodic stenosis, a condition in which the heart valve narrows. Valve leak - or paravalvular leak, is a serious complication that arises during valve replacement or implantation surgery. A space is created between natural heart tissue and the replaced valve.
The valve used is Edwards Sapien 3 Ultra and it is rated among the most advanced and safest heart valves globally, doctors at SRM Global Hospitals, said. In a catheter-based surgery, the artificial aortic valve was implanted. During the surgery an innovative sheath was used to prevent damage to surrounding tissues as the valve was guided through a blood vessel from the groin to the heart. The 55-minute surgery was done on May 9 and the patient started walking the next day.
SRM Global Hospitals’ president P. Sathyanarayanan said cutting-edge medical advancements enabled the hospitals to offer patients the assurance of safety and improved quality of life. T.R. Muralidharan, Director of Institute of Cardiac Sciences, who performed the surgery, said that the patient was on medication for stenosis. But his condition became severe, requiring surgical intervention. “We chose the valve which was just launched in India, since the device promised significant reduction in major vascular complications, such as valve leak,” he said.