NEW DELHI: Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals group on Tuesday highlighted the importance of minimally invasive MitraClip therapy and termed it to be a lifesaver for patients at high surgical risk while announcing the successful completion of four of these procedures in one day at their Chennai facility.
The minimally invasive method used in MitraClip therapy allows repair of a leaking mitral valve without open-heart surgery, Apollo Hospitals said.
“With the MitraClip, we are able to treat patients with severe mitral regurgitation who are at prohibitive surgical risk and offer them a second lease of life. To date, over 100,000 patients in more than 50 countries have undergone the MitraClip procedure,” Apollo Hospitals Group Chairman Prathap C Reddy said. Addressing a presser, he said, “what we did today is to replace heart surgery”.
Senior Interventional Cardiologist at Apollo Hospitals Sai Satish who performed the procedures said, especially for the frail and elderly, there is a very little avenue for conventional mitral valve surgery.“The MitraClip is the only percutaneous technology effective in both functional and degenerative mitral regurgitation.
The procedure is performed percutaneously in a cath lab and the device is removable and repositionable. These important attributes contribute to the safety of this procedure. For a properly selected patient who is at high surgical risk, MitraClip is actually economical in the long run as repeat hospitalisations are avoided,” he added. When asked about the cost of the procedure, Satish said the cost of the procedure is Rs 25 lakh. Apollo Hospitals is also developing a Echo Connect Project.