Woman with heart valve leak treated sans surgery

Madurai: Doctors at Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre (MMHRC) have successfully performed a trans catheter mitral valve repair procedure to save the life of a 58-year-old woman with mitral regurgitation in the heart. Her mitral valve between the left heart chambers was leaking blood backwards as it did not close fully.

Doctors said the patient had non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy with severe secondary mitral regurgitation (MR). She also had cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) defibrillator for heart failure, which ruled out open heart surgery.

“We introduced the MitraClip procedure, which offers a safe and effective way to treat the condition without major surgery. Through the patient’s right femoral vein, the interatrial septum was punctured at a specific location, and a MitraClip was delivered by grasping the two leaflets of the mitral valve in the best plane possible,” said Dr R Sivakumar, senior interventional cardiologist. She recovered in three days and was discharged.