A new life-saving procedure is now being done at the New Brunswick Heart Centre at Horizon’s Saint John Regional Hospital for patients with faulty mitral heart valves.
A team of surgeons and medical staff have successfully performed the first two MitraClip procedures in Atlantic Canada. The procedure is a much less invasive way to treat a potentially life-threatening heart condition, instead of open-heart surgery.
The MitraClip looks like a tiny clothespin and is used on certain patients who have a faulty mitral valve in their heart. It’s a valve that connects the atrium and ventricles. When that valve doesn’t work properly it causes a life-threatening condition called mitral regurgitation. If the condition is left untreated, patients could die or be completely incapacitated within a year.
Seventy-year-old John Peacock was the second person to have the procedure done in Saint John. The first person was a woman from Prince Edward Island.
Peacock’s condition was worsening extremely quickly. He said he was barely able to walk across the hospital parking lot before the procedure.
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“At Christmas I didn’t think I would make my next birthday,” Peacock said. “In this case my birthday is Sunday and it looks like I’ll make it.”
Interventional cardiologist Dr. Sohrab Lutchmedial is one part of a team of ten people who performed the first two procedures in Saint John.
“The actual statistics are mortality rates of 50 per cent, that is half of these patients may die in the next year if they’re untreated,” Lutchmedial said. “So that’s why we think it’s so important for us to be able to offer them something, a treatment that not only makes them feel better, but potentially can save lives.”
He said the Mitroclip is designed for use with “leaky mitro valves.”
“These are valves that through time, or injury from infection or other causes, have had parts of those leaflets become damaged.”
It is a condition more typically seen in older patients — often people in their 70s or 80s, which is why they’re not usually the best candidates for a traditional open-heart procedure.
“I think this is a game changer because it allows us to really expand our ability to take care of critically ill patients here at our centre in a way that is less invasive, safer for the patient and it keeps our patients here in the province,” added Lutchmedial.
“Previously we’d had to send our patients to Ontario or Quebec for this type of procedure, which is a huge expense to the patients and a huge deal for them to move them and their whole families.
“Now that we’re able to do it here, it’s a game changer we’re able to take care of our own patients in our province and that’s a matter of pride for us.”
New Brunswick is now the fourth province to offer the procedure, in addition to Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The team at Saint John Regional Hospital will perform approximately 12 of these procedures per year.
The technology was developed by Abbott Vascular and the technology was tested in Europe and North America. It was only recently authorized for use in North America in 2014.
“It is an expensive technology, but the truth is you can’t put a price tag on human suffering or being able to help someone who is unable to live a normal life, so we think that the money that we’re using for this type of device definitely can be saved through lower hospital costs, fewer medication costs, and letting people get back to a normal quality of life,” Lutchmedial said.
He says they’re very excited about the direction the heart centre is taking and says they’ll be enthusiastic about perusing new technologies like this in the future.
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