Saturday, Dec 17, 2011

Gulf News

Sharjah It’s a blessing of technology for patients with diseased aortic valves who are unfit to undergo open-heart surgery. Al Qasimi Hospital in Sharjah has introduced a new procedure to replace the valve without surgery.

The CoreValve transcatheter aortic-valve system, introduced in coordination with Medtronic, is considered the first of its kind in the UAE, Dr Arif Al Nooryani, CEO and head of the cardiology department at Al Qasimi Hospital, told Gulf News.

Three Emirati patients ages 70, 81 and 84 have received the CoreValve treatment. Two were from Sharjah and the third from Khor Fakkan. Dr Abdul Rahman Al Owais, Acting Minister of Health, visited the patients after the operation.

Khalid Lootah, CEO of Support Services at the Ministry of Health, said: “The ministry will bear the cost of Emirati patients who hold health cards and want the operation. It will cost them Dh5,000 while the Friends of the Patients Committee will bear the cost of expatriates after studying their cases.”

Financial support

Mohammad Abdullah, CEO of Friends of the Patients Committee, said Shaikh Mohammad Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Medical District and chairman of the committee, is committed to supporting patients who cannot pay for treatment.

In a press conference held to explain how the procedure works, Dr Al Nooryani said: “The Core-Valve aortic heart valve is made of natural tissue. The leaflets that control the flow of blood in the Core-Valve heart valve are secured to a flexible, self-expanding frame for support.

“With CoreValve, an incision is made and a new aortic valve is delivered via a catheter. It is a less invasive treatment option than open-heart valve surgery.”

The CoreValve system is designed to provide a minimally invasive treatment option — without open-heart surgery — for patients with symptomatic, severe aortic stenosis who are at high risk, or are ineligible, for open-heart surgery.

Worldwide, approximately 300,000 people have been diagnosed with this condition, and approximately one-third of these patients are deemed too high a risk for open-heart surgery.

“Since 2007, the Medtronic CoreValve system has been implanted in more than 15,000 people in more than 40 countries,” said Dr Tarek, a Medtronic representative.

“We have seen positive clinical outcomes with the CoreValve system and are pleased to offer it to individuals who, until now, have been denied transcatheter aortic valve implantation due to their larger native valve size,” Dr Al Nooryani added.

Introducing the 31mm CoreValve system at Al Qasimi Hospital, Dr Al Nooryani said, will meet the needs of more patients in the UAE. He added that patients from neighbouring countries had also called Al Qasimi hospital to be put on the waiting list for the new CoreValve technology.

Viable alternative

“The new CoreValve size may give many patients with severe aortic stenosis their first chance at a treatment alternative to optimal medical management or open-heart surgery. The operation takes around 45 minutes to one hour if there are no complications, but if there are complications it could take around two hours,” Dr Al Nooryani said.

The new CoreValve system costs Dh200,000, and will help to reduce the number of people going abroad for treatment,” said Lootah. However, in European countries it costs around Dh1 million, he added.

“The 31mm Medtronic CoreValve device system, the only transcatheter aortic valve available in the world that can treat, without surgery, patients with larger valve openings [up to 29mm].

“It is the largest trans-catheter valve available and, because it can be compressed into a small delivery system, is deployed through [less than a quarter-inch or approximately 6mm in diameter] delivery system as smaller Core-Valve sizes,” said another Medtronic representative.

Medtronic’s CoreValve portfolio now includes 26mm, 29mm and 31mm valves — all based on the self-expanding platform that received CE Mark certification in 2007.

“Individual sizing is critical to achieving optimal patient blood flow [haemodynamic function] and reducing adverse events, making the availability of an additional size an important offering to physicians and patients,” the representative said. “The US FDA has also approved the new system,” he added.

“The 31mm CoreValve size allows us to provide a life-saving treatment option for more patients with severe aortic stenosis,” said Dr Al Nooryani.

fast facts

What CoreValve transcatheter aortic-valve system.

For whom Typically for high-risk heart patients with severe aortic stenosis.

Price Dh200,000 in the UAE (approximately Dh1 million outside the UAE)

How it works Physicians channel a catheter with a prosthetic valve through a small opening in the patient’s femoral artery to reach the heart. The physician guides the system to the aortic valve, where it self-expands to replace the diseased aortic valve.

By Aghaddir Ali?Staff Reporter

Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.