Sorry for the last minute notice… But, I just learned that The Cleveland Clinic will be hosting a special Internet chat on Monday, May 23rd, at 12pm (EST). The exciting topic of the web chat will be percutaneous heart valve treatments. The moderators for the event will be Dr. Lars Svensson, director of the aorta program, and Dr. Murat Tuzcu, vice chairman of the cardiology department.

Considering the recent news about the Sapien, the CoreValve and the MitraClip, I imagine you might have questions about the future of these transformative technologies that are designed for patients experiencing mitral regurgitation and aortic stenosis.

It appears this web chat could be a great opportunity to obtain answers about these valvular treatments that do not require median sternotomy or thoracotomy.

• To learn how you can attend and participate in this web chat, please click here.

I hope that helps!

Keep on tickin!

While the Da Vinci robot is primarily used for mitral valve repair procedures, a handful of clinical cases have leveraged robotic technology for aortic valve replacement.

To get an update on robotic aortic valve replacement, I recently interviewed Dr. Husam Balkhy, the director of minimally invasive and robotic surgery at The Wisconsin Heart Hospital. As you may recall, Dr. Balkhy has performed aortic valve replacement using the Da Vinci robot and the ATS 3f Bioprosthetic valve, a horse valve replacement.

To help those in our patient and caregiver community that are hearing impaired, I have included a transcript of this video interview with Dr. Balkhy below.

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On the heels of our recent discussion about the Sapien, a new transcatheter aortic valve replacement technology, additional data about the MitraClip recently surfaced. Similar to the Sapien, the MitraClip is a non-invasive treatment for heart valve disease. Unlike the Sapien, however, the MitraClip is designed to repair the mitral valve of patients suffering from severe mitral regurgitation.

The MitraClip

In this study, the MitraClip’s performance was compared against traditional surgical approaches including median sternotomy. According to reports, 184 patients received the MitraClip procedure while 95 patients had open heart surgery. The key findings of the EVEREST II study were:

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Recently, new trial data was released for a next generation, catheter-based technology for aortic valve replacement.

At the 2011 American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans, patient results for the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) solution offered by Edwards Lifesciences suggested that use of its Sapien device was as good as conventional open-heart surgery. However, the risk of stroke continues to be an issue for the technology, researchers reported.

In this part of the experimental trial, the Sapien device went head-to-head with traditional aortic valve replacement techniques including median sternotomy.

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With all the exciting possibilities of transcatheter heart valve therapy, my inbox is overflowing with questions about the CoreValve, the Sapien and the MitraClip. For example, Dorothy sent me a question that reads, “Given all the advancements in certain treatments… Can you estimate a time when open heart valve replacement surgery will be part of a bygone era?”

I wanted to get Dorothy the best possible answer to this question. So, I met with Dr. Eric Roselli, staff surgeon from The Cleveland Clinic, to obtain his clinical opinions. Dr. Roselli is actively using transcatheter heart valves replacement therapies in his practice. In fact, Dr. Roselli is so knowledgeable with the percutaneous technologies shaping heart valve treatment, he was named the TechCon Co-Chairman at the annual Society of Thoracic Surgeons meeting.

I hope this helped you learn more about transcatheter heart valve therapies and their potential, future utility for patients suffering from valvular defects. Thanks to Dorothy for her excellent question. And, thanks to Dr. Roselli for sharing his time, expertise and ideas with our community!

For those of you in our patient and caregiver community who are hearing impaired, I have provided a transcript of Dr. Roselli’s interview below.

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