Sunday, October 21, 2007
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Canada leads in new heart valve replacement surgery
Quebec City – Canada is the world leader in a
new surgical technique that is transforming the
lives of patients too sick to undergo conventional
treatment to replace diseased aortic valves.
One hundred patients have been treated and the
results are excellent, says Dr. John Webb, whose
team is pioneering the new surgery at St. Paul’s
Hospital in Vancouver.
“This is a new procedure. When we started, people
didn’t think it was going to work,” says Dr.
Webb. “So we took patients who were thought to
be too high a risk for conventional
surgery.”
Over 13,000 Canadians undergo surgery every
year to replace aortic valves that have become
partially blocked or weakened, Dr. Webb’s team
member Dr. Robert Boone told the Canadian
Cardiovascular Congress 2007, co-hosted by the
Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian
Cardiovascular Society.
“Dr. Webb’s work is giving new hope to Canadians
living with heart disease, and clearly demonstrates
Canadian leadership in revolutionary treatments
for valvular heart disease,” said Dr. Beth
Abramson, Heart and Stroke Foundation
spokesperson and cardiologist.
The aortic valve allows blood to flow from the
heart’s lower left chamber into the aorta and to the
rest of the body. The aortic valve can become
leaky or blocked, and when that happens angina
and heart failure can result. Seventy five to 80 per
cent of people who have symptoms will die in
three to five years if they do not have the valve
replaced.
The conventional approach to valve replacement
involves sawing the breast bone in half, stopping
the heart, putting the patient on a heart/lung
machine, removing the old valve and sewing in a
new one.
“Any way you look at it, that’s major surgery,” Dr.
Josep Rodés Cabau told the Congress. Dr. Rodés
Cabau has performed the surgery in Quebec.
The new procedure uses percutaneous aortic
surgery to replace the defective valve.
In percutaneous surgery a needle puncture in a
blood vessel is used to insert a balloon catheter,
mounted with the new valve. The balloon is used
to expand the new valve inside the old valve,
which it pushes out of the way.
The technique is performed under local
anaesthesia and light sedation.
“These patients had been rejected for surgery
because they had a one in three chance of dying.
So we took them on and our mortality was one in
10 after 30 days – much less than had been
anticipated,” says Dr. Webb.
“Today our results using percutaneous surgery are
better than expected for people who are too high
risk for conventional surgery.”
The concept of aortic valve replacement was first
proposed in the 1990s in Denmark. The first
surgery in Canada, performed by Dr. Webb, was in
2004.
Dr. Abramson of the Heart and Stroke Foundation
says, “This minimally invasive technique is
promising and will hopefully affect clinical
practice not only in Canada but around the world.
What is particularly encouraging is the short
amount of time that it takes these patients to get
back to normal life.”
Video footage and illustrations of the procedure
are available to the media.
Statements and conclusions of study authors are
solely those of the study authors and do not
necessarily reflect Foundation policy or position.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
makes no representation or warranty as to their
accuracy or reliability.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation (
www.heartandstroke.ca), a volunteer-based
health charity,
leads in eliminating heart disease and stroke and
reducing their impact through the advancement of
research and its application, the promotion of
healthy living, and advocacy.
For more information, contact
Jane-Diane Fraser
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
(613) 569-4361 ext 273
jfraser@hsf.ca
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