Cardiologists from the Dubai Health Authority recently performed a minimally invasive cardiac procedure for five elderly patients in Dubai.

The latest technique, known as transcatheter aortic valve implantation (Tavi) is a unique therapy which may be used as an alternative to standard surgical aortic valve replacement. The procedure is performed on the beating heart without the need for a sternotomy or cardiopulmonary bypass, said a statement from the Authority.

Team members comprising specialists including interventional cardiologists, anesthesiologists, nurses, and radiologists successfully performed the procedure for three Emirati and two expatriate patients.

DHA Hospitals- Dubai and Rashid Hospital are the only ones in Dubai to perform this new technique, the statement said.

Dr Fahad Baslaib, consultant interventional cardiologist and director of Rashid Hospital’s cardiology department, said: “This technology has been developed for those patients who cannot tolerate open heart surgery and or run a high risk with surgical procedures. The beauty of this technique is that it is a minimally invasive outpatient procedure which means no hospitalisation is required, the period of recovery is much quicker and this amounts to better patient outcomes.”

He added that the procedure is particularly helpful for elderly patients who often develop a narrow aortic valve.

“This technique is one of the latest minimally invasive procedure and DHA team members recently visited Switzerland to master this technique,” Dr Baslaib said.

Dr Talib K Majwal, consultant, interventional cardiology and director of interventional cardiology, Dubai heart centre, Dubai Hospital, said: “We successfully performed this procedure for five patients all aged between 60 to 80 years. The workshop was supervised by professor Allan Cribier, the founder of the new technique.”

“Previously patients had to travel abroad for this treatment and the cost of performing this procedure abroad is five times more than the cost of performing it locally,” he added.

This is the second workshop for the DHA team; the first one was performed in November 2011, on four patients, aged 60 to 90 years.

Both Dubai and Rashid Hospital have highly advanced cardiology sections and this adds to the various facilities available at the hospitals, the statement said.

The Rashid Hospital cardiology section is one of the few hospitals in the Emirate to have a fully dedicated adult congenital heart disease clinic. It also boats of a state-of-the-art catherisation laboratory, cardiac rehabilitation services and the department performs invasive and non-invasive cardiac procedures.

Dubai Hospital provides through its Dubai heart centre, both a cardiac unit and the cardiothoracic surgery unit. The hospital, along with specialists from abroad, has performed over 250 free catherisation and heart surgeries since 2007, it said. – TradeArabia News Service