For all of you following the advancements and latest technology of heart valve replacement, here is some encouraging news specific to minimally invasive surgery using a catheter…

According to Forbes, shares of Edwards Lifesciences, the largest heart valve manufacturer, rose 10% yesterday after the company announced positive results from two recent studies of its newest bovine valve replacement device, known as the Sapien.

“Were the results of the study that good?” you may be wondering.

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Following his recent mitral valve repair, Larry just sent me a glowing report about his minimally invasive procedure in which Doctor Richard Shemin (UCLA) used the Da Vinci robot. Here are the details from Larry…

Hi Adam,

I had mitral valve repair surgery along with replacing the two cords that hold the mitral valve in place with Gore-Tex cords. The operation was six hours long. Your readers should know that I had this procedure done by the da Vinci robot manufactured by Intuitive Surgical. The surgeons did not have to open up my chest, but only three little incisions on my side. From the moment I woke up from surgery, I have had zero pain and have taken no painkillers. If the patient is a candidate for robotic mitral valve repair surgery, the procedure is as good as the normal surgery of opening up your chest, and the recovery makes it 100% better.

Da Vinci Surgical System

When I started to do my investigation on the Internet I wanted to find one of the best hospitals in the country and one of the top surgeons in a country that did this procedure. I found both with UCLA medical Center and Dr. Richard Shemin. The treatment I received at UCLA medical Center was the best you could ever hope for, and Dr. Shemin is an outstanding surgeon and a very nice person which is an outstanding, combination.

FYI, I was driving two weeks after surgery and lawn bowling after four weeks. Please make sure your readers know of this procedure.

Best regards,

Larry

P.S. If you would like to leave a message for Larry or discuss robotic valve surgery, please click here.

I just received an email from Jenny, a 57-year old mother of two, who was recently diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis.

According to her cardiologist, Jenny needs aortic valve replacement surgery in the next 3-6 months. That said, Jenny asked me, “Adam – What do you consider to be the latest technology in aortic valve surgery? I have heard that the new, minimally invasive procedures are less invasive and help the patient recovery faster. Is that true?”

As you may know, I am high technology consultant specializing in electronics manufacturing. That said, I spend my workdays examining the manufacturing technologies and processes for many different types of electronic products. My clients are in all areas of technology – computing, industrial, consumer, wireless and medical.

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According to ABC News, a New South Wales woman has become the first Australian to have a heart valve replaced without open heart surgery in a procedure that may revolutionize cardiac treatment for the frail and elderly.

In the minimally invasive procedure, a new aortic valve is attached to a long rod and fed through a small incision in the groin up to the the heart, where it defrosts and expands.

The state-of-the-art operation could replace conventional open heart surgery for many older patients who are too frail or ill to cope with a major operation and long recovery time.

Kathleen Condon, a 92-year-old from Port Macquarie in New South Wales, became the first to undergo the procedure, but her doctors say dozens of other Australians will soon follow.

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Medical technology never, ever, never, ever ceases to amaze me!

Here is an interesting report from TheHeart.org specific to the diagnosis and surgical correction of heart valves:

Published appraisals of real-time three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) are trickling into the medical literature. One such study, appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) this week, suggests that the breakthrough technology is feasible in most patients, permits faster image acquisition, and delivers superior images of certain cardiac structures than can be obtained with either real-time transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) or reconstructed 3D TEE imaging technology.

Echocardiographers who have used the device made by Philips Medical Systems say the published papers simply CAN NOT capture their EXCITEMENT or convey the extent to which the technology will revolutionize an imaging method for surgical planning and percutaneous procedures.

Dr Roberto M Lang (University of Chicago, IL), stated that 3D-MTEE “will become, in the near future, part of the routine TEE examination.”

But other echocardiographers—a group not known for superlatives—used phrases like “unbelievable advance,” “absolutely fantastic,” and “blown away” to convey their enthusiasm, and struggled to list any shortcomings of the technology. Not only will 3D-MTEE revolutionize their day-to-day jobs, they say, it also makes the images they obtain instantly accessible to nonechocardiographers.

“You can essentially produce images, in real time, that look exactly like what you would see if you had the heart in front of you,” Dr Linda Gillam (Columbia University, New York) told heartwire. “It’s a display that surgeons, or anyone else with any knowledge of the structure and function of the heart, can immediately relate to.”

Click here to see 3D-MTEE images generated by the new Philips device for the mitral valve, the aortic valve and the tricuspid valve. Needless to say, it is fascinating to see an actual valve in three dimensions versus the 3D heart valve model I posted here a few weeks ago.

Keep on tickin!