Doctors at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute here have performed the country's first successful MitraClip procedure to repair the leaking heart valve of a 69-year-old man, thereby avoiding the standard open heart surgery for such conditions, the hospital claimed on November 26.

Till now, open heart surgery with repair or replacement of the valve had been the only possible treatment for such patients in India, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute said in a statement. "The MitraClip is a novel catheter based non-surgical repair of the mitral valve inside the heart and is performed in the catheterization laboratory like angioplasty," Ashok Seth, Chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute who led the team of doctors who performed the procedure on the patient explained. 

The patient had undergone a bypass surgery 13 years ago and more recently his heart was getting enlarged due to a severely leaking valve leading to breathlessness and heart failure. "Special catheters are inserted through the large vein in the groin and the catheter is passed from the right chamber of the heart to the left chamber of the heart by puncturing the partition called interatrial septum," Seth said.

"Then, under echocardiography and X-ray guidance a clip is put on the leaking mitral valve to decrease the leak which improves the condition of the patient. The patient is normally ready to be discharged in 24-48 hours' time," he added. 

To perform the procedure, the doctors at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute were supported by Professor Saibal Kar of Smidt Heart Institute, Cedars Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles, US. "With the introduction of MitraClip to India, we hope to benefit a number of patients who are gradually deteriorating from leaking valves, despite medications and are unsuitable for valve replacement surgery," Kar said.