HARRISBURG: Doctors have succeeded to hold a first non surgical heart-valve replacement at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Surgeons performed a transcatheter aortic-valve replacement of a 93-year old patient named Herbert Auspitz without open-heart surgery in the hospital.
He had severe aortic- valve stenosis. It is a narrowing of the valve that controls blood flow from the heart. There is no way to prevent it and there are no drugs to treat it.
The doctors had decided to use a new method recently approved by federal regulators for people who are inoperable or at high risk from open-heart surgery. His cardiologists, led by Dr. Howard Herrmann, inserted a new valve made from the lining of a cow’s heart through a catheter, then opened it like an umbrella.
The new valve procedure is a part of the changing face of cardiac care in the United States. The new speedy treatment would help to slash the death toll from the heart disease in the world.
