Milestone For IJN With Innovative Heart Valve Treatment

Dato Dr Azmee Mohd Ghazi, Clinical Director, Heart Failure & Heart Transplant

It is another milestone for Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) being the first hospital in Asia to successfully perform a new type of treatment for patients suffering from tricuspid regurgitation or leaky heart valves.

This treatment is a minimally invasive procedure that involves using a dry valve preloaded delivery system, called the Tricvalve® Transcatheter Bicaval Valves system or Bioprosthesis.
The Breakthrough Device Designation for Tricvalve and the bioprosthesis is used for patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation (leaky valves) with high risk for open-heart surgery.

The procedure was carried out at IJN on May 6 by the Heart Failure & Heart Transplant team and Cardiology Department.

Dato Dr Azmee Mohd Ghazi, Clinical Director, Heart Failure & Heart Transplant, Consultant Cardiologist, IJN, says not all patients are able to withstand the risks of surgery or may have other conditions that make them unsuitable for certain procedures.

“For instance, a common surgical option for tricuspid valve regurgitation is annuloplasty, a procedure that tightens the ring around the valve in the heart. Unfortunately, in patients with severely dilated tricuspid annulus or with prior pacemaker or other underlying conditions, they will not be suitable for such procedure.

“For such cases, it is important that we are able to offer a new innovative treatment like Tricvalve® to help more patients alleviate their symptoms and improve their quality of life,” he says.

Meanwhile, Datuk Dr Aizai Azan Abdul Rahim, CEOr & Senior Consultant Cardiologist, IJN says it’s no secret that IJN’s success has been built on the willingness of its staff to keep learning, exploring for new innovative treatments and pushing the boundaries to be able to treat more patients who are deemed unsuitable for surgeries.