Successful implantation of a complete heart valve via the groin at Magdeburg University Hospital
The first complete heart valve implantation via the groin has been successfully performed at the University Clinic for Cardiology and Angiology Magdeburg (including Internal Intensive Care Medicine). This procedure was a first in the whole of Saxony-Anhalt and is only offered in a few centers throughout Europe. The innovative treatment method opens up a new therapeutic option for many patients, which was previously only possible through open surgery.
The heart team led by Prof. Dr. med. Rüdiger C. Braun-Dullaeus, Director of the University Clinic for Cardiology and Angiology Magdeburg, and Deputy Clinic Director Prof. Dr. med. Alexander Schmeißer performed the first catheter-based implantation of the so-called EVOQUE valve.This is delivered via the groin directly to the leaking tricuspid valve, the valve between the right atrium and the right ventricle, "packaged" and deployed on site.The diseased valve serves as a support for the new valve.
Photo: The heart team led by Prof. Rüdiger C. Braun-Dullaeus, Director of the University Clinic for Cardiology and Angiology Magdeburg (second from right), and the Deputy Clinic Director Prof. Alexander Schmeißer (second from left) in the hybrid room of the University Medical Center Magdeburg before the start of the first catheter-based implantation of the so-called EVOQUE valve.Detail on the right: Artificial tricuspid valve.
Photographer: Melitta Schubert/UMMD
Initial long-term data presented at the EuroPCR Congress 2023 in Paris shows that the significant improvements in patients' quality of life are impressive and that many of them now have a treatment option that was previously unavailable.
With the EVOQUE system, the University Medical Center Magdeburg is now expanding its broad range of catheter-guided treatment options for diseased heart valves to include tricuspid valve replacement. It is already certified for TAVI (aortic valve replacement) as well as for mitral valve and tricuspid valve edge-to-edge procedures (so-called clipping).
Prof. Schmeißer said: "Patients with heart valve disease suffer greatly from their symptoms. They are exhausted and increasingly have difficulty breathing on exertion.Non-functioning valves also put a strain on the heart, which then threatens to fail. With the EVOQUE system, we now have another option if patients cannot be treated with other procedures such as open surgery or clipping."
Background information
The tricuspid valve serves as an inlet valve for the right ventricle and enables the transportation of deoxygenated blood from the body to the lungs.Its task is to prevent blood from flowing back into the right atrium during the pumping process.If the tricuspid valve is leaky (insufficiency) or narrowed (stenosis), it can no longer perform this function properly.This puts a strain on the heart and threatens to fail over time.
Photo: The valve as it appears in the heart: left in fluoroscopy, right in ultrasound.
Photographer: Melitta Schubert/UMMD