Patients in the east of England suffering from the life-limiting effects of heart valve disease can now benefit from a new treatment option here at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Mitral valve regurgitation occurs when the two flaps of the mitral valve in the heart do not close as tightly as they should. This allows blood to flow the wrong way, backwards, from the left ventricle (bottom chamber) into the left atrium (top chamber).
It can cause symptoms such as breathlessness and fatigue and, if left untreated, could cause heart failure because the heart is having to pump harder to get blood around the body.
The catheter laboratory team who performed the first cases at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Our hospital has become one of the first cardiology centres in the UK to use the new SM3 transcatheter mitral valve replacement therapy from Edwards Lifesciences.
Two patients from the East of England previously deemed too high risk for open heart surgery or unsuitable for other mitral valve procedures have now been treated in a minimally invasive procedure, carried out in a catheter laboratory.
“We do not expect the volume of cases for these patients to be substantial, but it provides an option for people for whom high risk surgery or drug therapy was previously the only option,” said Dr Charis Cotopoulos, Clinical Director for Non-coronary Intervention.
“We were not able to offer this to our patients before, and in doing so have become one of the few centres in the UK that have this technology available.
“This is the latest example of us transforming what is possible for patients with heart and lung conditions.
“I would like to thank my cardiology colleagues, the catheter laboratory staff where this procedure is carried out, our structural valve nurse team, the ward teams where patients recover, the co-ordinators and all our referring hospitals across the region.”
Dr Charis Costopoulos alongside fellow consultant cardiologists Dr Patrick Calvert and Dr Madalina Garbi, with Aoife, clinical scientist Edwards Lifesciences (second from right)