Innovative procedure is ‘game-changer’ for older adults with heart valve disease
Hazel Winter (Photo Courtesy of UVM Medical Center)
An innovative, minimally invasive procedure is reducing the risk faced by patients with heart valve disease and improving their quality of life. During the tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) procedure, surgeons use a clip to repair a leaky heart valve. The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington is currently the only hospital in the state that offers TEER and among the most experienced performing the procedure among health systems in the region.
Heart valve disease — which occurs when at least one heart valve isn’t working properly — affects more than 5 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include fatigue, swelling in the legs, shortness of breath and irregular heart rhythms. Older adults in particular are at risk for this condition, which can lead to heart failure.
A blog on the UVM Health website, “From Wheelchair to Walking,” features the story of Hazel Winter, 82, who had a minor stroke and was being treated at the UVM Medical Center emergency department, where clinicians discovered she had tricuspid valve regurgitation, a condition where the valve allows blood to leak backward into the heart.
Winter was one of the first patients in the region to undergo TEER. Before this procedure was developed, the only options for patients were undergoing open-heart surgery or living with a condition that significantly reduces their quality of life. Winter marveled at how much better she felt after the procedure: “I arrived by wheelchair, and I’m planning on walking out of here …. I can’t believe the difference this had made for me already. It’s a game changer.”
Rony Lahoud, M.D., interventional cardiologist at UVM Medical Center, observed, “To watch people go home the very next day and immediately feel the difference — that’s the kind of outcome you aspire to have.” He lauded the medical center’s multidisciplinary teamwork to develop this innovative treatment: “Pushing the boundaries of what is possible requires true collaboration between different specialties, including interventional cardiology, advanced cardiac imaging, cardiac anesthesia and cardiothoracic surgery, among others.”