Three PinnacleHealth patients have undergone a new procedure for aortic valve reconstruction, using the patients’ own heart tissue (pericardium) to create the new valves.
It was first available in central Pennsylvania (USA) at PinnacleHealth and is currently performed at a handful of institutions across the USA.
Mubashir Mumtaz, chief of cardiothoracic surgery and surgical director of the structural heart program at PinnacleHealth, says, “Using one’s own tissue has numerous benefits for the patient. The reconstructed valves are functioning well in all three patients three months post-surgery.”
Mumtaz travelled to Japan to gain insights from the world-renowned team of Shigeyuki Ozaki in Tokyo, who has developed the procedure and published results in more than 400 hundred patients.
