A 57 yrs old gentlemen came to Wockhardt Hospital and met Dr. Nitin Tiwari, Sr. Interventional Cardiologist working at Wockhardt Hospitals since last 19 years. He had severe heart failure (decreased pumping of heart to less than 25%) and a leaky valve (Mitral regurgitation). He also had skipped beats and both lungs were filled with fluid. He could hardly breathe and had pipes put in both sides of chest and was admitted at different hospitals for more than a period of 3 months. Dr. Tiwari optimised his treatment and put on AICD to stabilize him. Then he decided to fix his leaky valve (Mitral regurgitation) which was due to the swelling of his heart. Considering his frailty and decreased pumping, opening his chest would have been a difficult proposition.
Hence Dr. Nitin Tiwari thought of doing a minimally invasive trans-catheter mitral valve repair called as “Mitra Clip”. This procedure does not require opening the chest and temporarily stopping the heart. In “Mitra clip” procedure, a catheter is put through the groin (just like an angioplasty procedure) and small clip is attached to the mitral valve to help it close more completely and hence stop the leakage and restore normal blood flow through the heart.
The procedure went well and the patient was discharged subsequently. Dr. Nitin Tiwari said that this is the first ever case of “Mitra Clip” done in Central India. Patient with heart failure and leaky valve have shortness of breath especially on lying down, fatigue, dry cough, swollen feet, decreased appetite and inability to exercise. If left untreated, upto 57% people don’t survive even 1 year. Dr. Nitin Tiwari thanked Dr. Ravi Bagali, Dr. Vinod Kashetwar, Mr. Amit Mukherjee, Mr. Shantanu, Dr. Pankaj Jain Choudhary, Dr. Avantika Jaiswal, Mr. Raut, Mr. Devendra, Sister Vidya and all the Cath lab staff for their support and for the success of this procedure.
This is one of the pioneering procedures and a major milestone for the region, said Dr. Nitin Tiwari.