NaviGate Cardiac Structures asserted that its catheter-guided GATE valved-stent bioprosthesis became the first Canadian orthotopic valve replacement to treat severe tricuspid regurgitation.
The patient, a 79-year old male, was deemed at high-risk for standard cardiac surgery and unable to withstand cardiopulmonary external circulation. A compassionate plea on his behalf was made by the Heart Team of the Institute.
Dr. Rodés-Cabau, who has performed multiple procedures for atrioventricular valve dysfunction using various repair devices, said: “The NaviGate bioprosthesis is the only transcatheter device in development that has been used to completely replace the native tricuspid valve and restore its function in the human.”
There were no immediate complications and an excellent result was obtained, which allowed the patient to be discharged within a few days after a satisfactory recovery from the procedure. As this was the first catheter-guided tricuspid valve replacement in the country, the Institute’s Heart Team and patient were interviewed by the Canadian media. At the onset of the interview, the patient told the journalist how, for a long time before this procedure, he had experienced loss of balance and generalized weakness. Now, with feelings of relief a few days after the procedure, he felt much better and all was returning to normal.
Tricuspid regurgitation is a lethal condition and is not self-repairable. Medical treatment alone only prolongs the descent into right heart failure but cannot prevent the outcome that is reached earlier rather than later. Efforts to reproduce by catheter guidance the surgical repair methods have not given satisfactory and durable TR correction as invariably there is residual TR that returns to the moderate-to-severe stage, as TR generates TR. Estimates of patients in severe-to-torrential TR in the USA and Europe quantify the totals over a million, and lesser-than-severe stages bring the total to more than 7 million.