Life-saving lung implant via femoral artery pioneered at La Fe hospital
Friday, February 27, 2015 @ 4:52 PM
VALENCIA'S La Fe hospital has worked out how to implant an arterial heart-lung connecting valve via the femoral artery, a swift and technically-simple form of surgery which means patients born with heart conditions do not need to undergo regular, life-threatening operations.
Medics at the leading research hospital fitted a valve prosthesis via the route normally used for inserting stents, or artery-widening tubes, into the heart, meaning it was minimally invasive.
The patient is just 20 years old and was born with a congenital heart malfunction which meant he would not have made it to the age of 50, or possibly not even to 40.
Surgeons say they are selecting patients of a similar profile and who need a reconstruction of the connection between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery, so that non-oxygenated blood reaches the lungs properly.
In most cases, tubes would have been fitted in this area many years before as this was considered the only way to treat the patient, but these begin to fail and become blocked after an average of 10 years, meaning the right ventricle of the heart cannot function properly.
As a result, the patient has to undergo continued major surgery for the rest of his or her life, which carries a high risk of fatality.
But by implanting a lung valve instead, this restores the normal function of the connection between the right ventricle and pulmonary artery, avoiding the need for future high-risk operations in later life.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com