Banner Facilities To Use First Heart Valve Placed Without Open Heart Surgery
PHOENIX (Nov.15, 2011) – Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center and Banner Heart Hospital will be among the first in the nation to offer a new procedure that can replace an aortic heart valve in patients with Aortic Stenosis. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Sapien Transcatheter Heart Valve, which can be placed without the invasive open heart surgery that was previously required to treat such patients.
“The Sapien Transcatheter Heart Valve is a new, innovative device that will make valve replacement possible for those who may not be strong enough to undergo open heart surgery, and we are proud to be one of the few in the U.S to offer this medical breakthrough,” said Timothy Byrne, MD, cardiologist. “The Cavanagh Heart Center at Banner Good Sam wants to reach out to physicians as well as patients themselves who have been told they do not have options to treat their heart failure.”
“This new technology will offer elderly and infirmed patients who are not normally a candidate for valve surgery a treatment option that has tremendous potential,” said Donald Polansky, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon at Banner Heart Hospital. “In clinical trials using the device, a substantial number of patients were shown to have survived longer when the transcatheter valve was used.”
The new valve is made of cow tissue and polyester supported with a stainless steel mesh frame. To replace the diseased valve, the Sapien valve is compressed into the end of a long, thin, tube-like device called a delivery catheter. The delivery catheter, which is slightly wider than a pencil, is inserted into the femoral artery through a small cut in the leg and threaded to the site of the diseased valve. The heart valve is then released from the delivery catheter and expanded with a balloon and is immediately functional.
Patients who need the procedure have aortic stenosis, a progressive age-related disease that involves calcium deposits on the aortic valve. The deposits cause the valve to narrow and the heart has to work harder to pump enough blood through the smaller valve opening. This weakens the heart, which can lead to problems such as fainting, chest pain, heart failure, irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias), or cardiac arrest. Once symptoms of aortic stenosis occur, more than half of patients die within two years. This device will be a life saver for thousands with aortic stenosis whose hearts are too weak to survive open heart surgery.
The FDA’s approval of the Sapien is based on a study in 365 patients who were not eligible for open-heart surgery. Half of the patients received the Sapien valve. The other study patients received another treatment that did not require open-heart surgery. After a year, 69 percent of the Sapien patients were alive compared with 50 percent of those who received an alternative treatment.
The Banner Health facilities will begin offering the procedures after the first of the year. Patient inquiries can be directed to Banner Good Samaritan (602) 839-2400 or Banner Heart Hospital (480) 854-5320.
About Cavanaugh Heart Center at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center
Banner Good Samaritan’s Cavanagh Heart Center, which sees almost 9,000 patients a year, is nationally ranked by U.S.News & World Report as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Heart Care and Heart Surgery. The Cavanagh Heart Center has been designated an Accredited Heart Failure Center from the Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium (HAC), and has been certified by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation for its cardiac rehabilitation program.
About Banner Heart Hospital
Banner Heart Hospital is one of the largest free-standing heart hospitals in the nation. It is the only accredited Heart Failure Institute in Arizona by the Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium, and U.S. News & World Report lists Banner Heart Hospital among the Phoenix area’s “Best Hospitals” rankings for specialty services in heart care, heart surgery and geriatrics. The hospital’s emergency heart services, in conjunction with Banner Baywood Medical Center, received Chest Pain Center accreditation in 2011. Services at Banner Heart Hospital include open heart surgery, vascular care, interventional cardiology, heart failure and heart rhythm treatment, women’s heart care treatment and rehabilitation.
Contact: Corey Schubert, Banner Heart Hospital
Juliet Gomez, Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center
Phone: Corey – (480) 321-4978
Juliet - (602) 839-4411
