On December 3, 2021, with the support of Professor Pan Xiangbin and Director Wang Shouzheng from Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Mei Ju, chief expert and the team of Hefei Hi-Tech Cardiovascular Hospital successfully completed the first MemoClip-A transapical mitral valve clip system implantation in pre-market clinical research.
The patient was a 76-year-old female who was admitted to the hospital for "recurrent chest tightness and panic for more than 8 years, aggravated by half a month". TEE (transesophageal echocardiography) showed an enlarged left heart, a large amount of regurgitation in the mitral valve, a small amount of aortic valve regurgitation, a small and medium amount of tricuspid regurgitation, pulmonary hypertension (mild), normal left ventricular systolic function, and decreased diastolic function. After evaluation, the patient meets the criteria of the clinical trial of the "transapical mitral valve clamping system" and is suitable for performing transapical mitral valve clamping.
After pre-operative preparations, the patient was under general anesthesia. Professor Mei Ju performed the procedure, guided by TEE, and delivered the MemoClip-A mitral valve clip through the apex to capture and clamp the lesions of the anterior and posterior mitral valve leaflets. The position of the clamp is stable. Postoperative showed that the patient's mitral regurgitation was immediately reduced.
The MemoClip-A transapical mitral valve clip system is independently developed by Shanghai Shape Memory (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lepu Sci-Tech Medical Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.). The system is derived from the surgical "edge-to-edge suture" procedure. It is the core instrument of the mitral valve clamping operation, which achieves the mitral valve edge-to-edge repair with a minimally invasive small incision.
Mitral valve regurgitation is one of the most common heart valve diseases, which can be complicated by atrial fibrillation, endocarditis, systemic embolism and other symptoms. In severe cases, it can lead to heart failure or even death.
Professor Mei Ju introduced that in the past, mitral valve regurgitation treatment was mainly performed by surgical thoracotomy to repair or replace the mitral valve, which has disadvantages such as large trauma, high pain, high risk, and slow recovery. At present, there are a large number of severe mitral valve in clinical practice. Reflux patients cannot tolerate surgical operations due to ideological conflict or due to age, poor heart function, and multiple organ dysfunction, and can only be maintained by drugs without effective treatment.
Transapical mitral valve clamping is a "minimally invasive surgery done on the beating heart". It does not require thoracotomy and extracorporeal circulation. Only a 3cm incision is made in the anterior heart area. Under ultrasound guidance, the instrument is clamped through a catheter. It is delivered to the mitral valve and clamped to the corresponding position, thereby effectively reducing regurgitation, with less trauma and quick recovery. It can provide new treatment strategies for more patients with mitral regurgitation who are not suitable for surgical thoracotomy, and bring new hope to them.
In the future, Hefei Hi-Tech Cardiovascular Hospital and Lepu Medical will continue to devote ourselves to advanced treatment concepts and methods, further promote minimally invasive interventional therapy, minimize surgical trauma, shorten the patient’s hospital stay, help patients obtain faster and better rehabilitation, and improve the quality of life.
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