Nov 18, 2008 4:55 pm US/Eastern
MGH Pioneers Valve-Replacement Alternative
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Thousands of Americans suffer from heart failure and need to have their valves replaced. But conventional valve-replacement surgery is too risky for many older patients.
Now, a local hospital may have a new option for them.
Robert Shaw has had two open-heart surgeries and was told that his heart valve would eventually have to be replaced.
But then he had to have surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for colon cancer, meaning that even though his heart was starting to fail, another open-heart surgery would have be too risky.
"The valve was quite bad," Shaw said. "I had difficulty breathing, I was on oxygen."
Traditionally the treatment for that has been open-heart surgery. However the aging population often suffers from other medical conditions or has undergone other heart procedures, increasing the risk.
That's why Shaw decided to undergo a less-invasive, experimental procedure being tested by surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Instead of opening up the heart, they use a catheter inserted through an artery in the groin, or the chest wall, to put a new valve in the heart.
"We believe this will make the procedure available to a larger number of patients because it's a minimally invasive procedure with a very quick recovery," MGH's Dr. Ignacio Inglessis said.
Robert Shaw is thankful.
"I feel very blessed I had it," he said. "I'm here, and I wouldn't have survived the conventional surgery. It certainly would've been a much longer recovery."
Most patients like Shaw are out of the hospital within a few days.
Massachusetts General is looking for more patients to take part in the study.
For more information, call (617) 724-2076 or click
here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
