First patients benefit from pioneering treatment for heart valve disease at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge
Five people in the East of England have become the first to benefit from a pioneering treatment for heart valve disease at Royal Papworth Hospital.
The Cambridge hospital is the only one in the region, and one of only a few in the UK, using Trilogy valve technology to treat a condition in which the blood flows the wrong way through the heart, causing severe breathlessness, chest pain, fatigue and a build-up of fluid.
Five patients from Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdon, Peterborough and Suffolk have now benefitted from the new treatment for their aortic valve regurgitation.
They underwent a minimally-invasive procedure known as transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), which has given them a new lease of life and prevented them having to travel further afield or undergo much riskier open heart surgery.
One of them, Mary Baker, 79, from Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire, says she is “feeling a thousand per cent better” since undergoing the treatment for her leaky heart valve.
Her case was deemed too risky for open heart surgery.
“I used to play golf and go to the gym two to three times a week, but my condition built up gradually and I was feeling really poorly because my valve was leaking quite badly,” she said. “I was so short of breath all the time – I could barely walk a few yards without stopping and even talking to people was hard.
“Since having the procedure, friends have said they can tell the difference, even just by talking to me over the phone.
“I’ve just started driving again and I’m very much looking forward to getting back to playing golf and going to the gym.
“The treatment I had was marvellous and the staff were absolutely fantastic – everyone from the nurses to the consultants and people bringing me a cup of tea, they were all lovely."
Mary had the treatment on a Monday and was home by Wednesday teatime.
“Open heart surgery is very invasive but with the TAVI I had no pain and bounced back quickly,” she said. “I’d encourage others not to worry about having this procedure. It wasn’t as bad as going to the dentist, and there were lots of people looking after me and reassuring me.”
A 76-year-old woman from Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, who underwent the procedure, said: “Beforehand I couldn’t walk very far, and I couldn't do quite a few things around the house because I was getting out of breath so quickly.
“Having the Trilogy TAVI valve has really improved my quality of life. I’ve just had a wander around the supermarket and bought some groceries, and I came home and unpacked everything from the car. I haven’t got a big problem with that now whereas I would have done before, I would have been terribly out of breath.
“My experience at Royal Papworth was wonderful. Everybody was so nice, so kind and very informative.”
Dr Charis Costopoulos, clinical lead for non-coronary intervention and consultant cardiologist in coronary and structural intervention at Royal Papworth Hospital, said: “We’re extremely proud to be able to offer the Trilogy valve system to our patients.
“These patients now can have definitive treatment here. Previously, people who were deemed inoperable would bounce in and out of hospital with little quality of life between admissions. It also means that high-risk patients who would otherwise have surgical aortic valve replacement as their only option can now be treated minimally invasively, resulting in reduced hospital length of stay and much quicker recovery.
“The fact that we have been selected as one of a handful of centres that can access this technology is a testament of the hard work of everyone involved in expanding and growing our TAVI programme to one of the biggest in the county.”