Sapiens cath valve placed in old tissue valve

[Johan]

This last week Dr's in Cape Town placed an Edwards Sapiens valve through a woman's carotid artery into her failing tricuspid tissue prosthetic valve.

This was reported in a Cape Town newspaper yesterday 3 Dec 2010. I tried to get the article electronically from the newspaper but they wanted payment for it, so I scanned it but the quality is rather compromised.

What I can gather from the news article is that the woman, now 39, had both her tricuspid and aortic valves replaced when she was 18 through traditional OHS. The new tricuspid started degenerating now after 11 years but the aortic seems to be still fine. Dr Helmuth Weich, a Cape Town cardiologist, replaced the tricuspid with an Edwards Sapiens valve by placing it in the old tissue valve in a 2 hour procedure through her right carotid artery.

I have also placed the scanned article in my photo album on my profile...
http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8873

 

[Jkm7]

Very exciting news as we hear more and more successful percutaneous placement of valves. What an exciting time in heart treatment as we see this procedure become more common.

 

[nngbwh]

Amazing... Thanks for sharing the info.

 

[ottagal]

Very encouraging news indeed! Thanks for sharing, Johan.

 

[Lynlw]

Thanks, I had heard a few places were doing tricuspid valves percutaneously, but didn't know of any definately.

 

[malibu82]

so great to hear!

 

[Mentu]

Hi, Johan, this is interesting to hear. Just before my AVR, my surgeon said that within the 12 to 18 months it should be possible to replace tissue valves like ours. Today is not quite 15 months so his projection was pretty good. It is perhaps too early to have a sense of how this type of replacement will perform over time but it is certainly worth following. Thanks for the note.

Larry