Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology BlogComplex Heart Issues Can Now Be Fixed Without Open Heart Surgery
February 9th 2012 00:39
Link: itechmedicaltoday.com
Open Heart Surgery
Open heart surgery is one of the most invasive, complex and hardest surgery to recover from. It is also the second most important, some would say the most important, surgery that you can have. The heart is arguably the most important organ in the body. It pumps life giving blood throughout the body and without this blood, the brain wouldn't work. Also, interestingly enough, the heart can work without the brain telling it what to do. It squeezes hard enough to crush a tennis ball to pump blood throughout the body. In one pump of the left ventricle it forces blood throughout the entire body giving oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Without the heart nothing would work and if the heart isn't working properly nothing works well or even at all. Certain unfortunate people are born with a heart defect in their heart valves. This congenital heart defect requires as many as four open heart surgeries before adulthood to replace the valves that they have outgrown. There is, however, a new alternative. A new type of artificial pulmonary valve called the Medtronic Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve was recently approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is now being used to replace a narrow or leaky pulmonary valve "conduit" that connects the heart of the lungs. The Melody valve is inserted into a small opening in the leg of the patient in the femoral artery guided by a catheter up to the heart. Once the valve is positioned, a balloon on the end of the catheter is inflated, placing the valve and immediately correcting blood flow. This procedure is extremely similar to Cardiac Catheterization, where a stent is placed using the same procedure as before. The amazing thing about this surgery is that it is done beating heart. Which means that the heart never stops pumping blood throughout the surgery. Also the recovery time for this surgery is next to nothing. The patient only stays overnight in the hospital and goes home in the morning with virtually no pain and goes back to business as normal.
Oregon Health & Science University (2011, February 7). Complex heart problems fixed without open-heart surgery. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 13, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2011/02/11020316381 5.htm
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