A Vancouver cardiologist has presented details of a revolutionary heart valve surgery to thousands of doctors from around the world and says the minimally invasive procedure will 91裸聊视频渂low people91裸聊视频檚 minds.91裸聊视频�
Dr. David Wood led a study involving 411 patients who underwent an operation called 3M transcatheter aortic valve replacement for treating aortic heart valve disease, at 13 centres across North America, 11 of them in Canada.
91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 going to change, we think, not just North American, but global practice,91裸聊视频� Wood said Monday before presenting the study at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference in Denver, where 15,000 attendees had enrolled.
Instead of invasive open heart surgery, which requires general anesthetic, slicing of the sternum, or breastbone, and long hospital stays and recovery time, patients were awake for the 45-minute procedure and walking within a few hours. Eighty per of them went home the next day.
91裸聊视频淵ou had no breathing tube, no catheter in your bladder, you could return to work the next day, you could be driving the next day. These are things that I think the average person can91裸聊视频檛 believe are feasible in 2017,91裸聊视频� said Wood, who practises at Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul91裸聊视频檚 Hospital in the same city.
The aortic valve is the most important of four heart valves and leads from the heart to the body, supplying blood to the head, lungs and muscles. It wears out and narrows with age.
The median age of patients in the study was 84, and their symptoms include chest pain and shortness of breath.
91裸聊视频淥nce you start getting symptoms, 50 per cent of people are going to be dead within a year so it91裸聊视频檚 absolutely imperative that you fix that valve,91裸聊视频� Wood said.
The new innovation builds on a technique pioneered by Wood91裸聊视频檚 colleague Dr. John Webb in 2005, which still required general anesthetic and a week-long hospital stay.
91裸聊视频淏y doing less, actually the patients did better,91裸聊视频� he said of their work done at the Centre for Heart Valve Innovation involving St. Paul91裸聊视频檚, VGH and the University of British Columbia.
91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 truly been a revolution,91裸聊视频� he said, adding the latest procedure means quality of life for patients and cost savings for the health-care system, aspects his team are looking into quantifying.
Sister Theresa Stickley had the 91裸聊视频渕iracle91裸聊视频� surgery in 2013 at age 83 when she lived in Squamish, B.C., and became increasingly exhausted and had difficulty breathing.
91裸聊视频淭he doctor told me I was very close to death and had a couple of months only to live,91裸聊视频� Stickley said of the surgery that meant she didn91裸聊视频檛 have to have her 91裸聊视频渨hole chest bone sawed through.91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频淚 was walking right after the surgery,91裸聊视频� she said from the Monastery of the Angels in Los Angeles, where the American-Canadian citizen moved last year.
Max Morton, 79, was the first person to have the procedure as an emergency-room patient at Vancouver General Hospital. He91裸聊视频檇 already had open heart surgery a decade earlier.
91裸聊视频淲ithin 24 hours I thought, well, this is nice. It was such an amazing experience being awake for the whole thing,91裸聊视频� he said from his home in Richmond, B.C., adding he went fishing five days later.
91裸聊视频淭he only reason Max is alive is because we91裸聊视频檇 been doing the study and we were able to use that technique for Max. That91裸聊视频檚 why he91裸聊视频檚 such an amazing story. No one had ever done it before like that.91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频� Follow @CamilleBains1 on Twitter.
Camille Bains, The Canadian Press
