World's First: Prof. Guetta Plugs Bleeding Heart in 29 Year-Old Patient

Prof. Victor Guetta, Director of Sheba's Invasive and Interventional Cardiology Unit recently plugged a bleeding hole in the arterial region of the heart within a 29-year-old patient, using a device that is frequently used to unblock arteries.

The procedure was performed after the patient presented with an aneurysm in the left ventricle region of his heart that had ruptured and was bleeding into his chest cavity.

The patient in question had already undergone several heart procedures for chronic cardiological problems. However, during the past few months he had been suffering from shortness of breath and when he got to hospital, after undergoing tests, the medical staff informed him that he had a tear in the heart ventricle that was leaking blood.

The standard option for treating such a condition would have been open heart surgery, a procedure that is invasive, takes a number of hours and entails the risk of chest wound infections, heart attack, stroke, blood clots, and lung and kidney failure.

Guetta, however, thought there might be a better way. The patient agreed to let him try a heretofore unknown procedure. Guetta and his team of doctors accessed the heart using a standard catheterization procedure, inserting a straw-sized tube into a large blood vessel and making their way to the heart. Once there, they plugged the hole using an Amplatzer Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) Occluder, which is a self-expanding, double-disc device made from wire mesh. The device is most often used in standard cardiac catheterization procedures, like angioplasty, to open blocked arteries, but had never been used to plug an arterial hole. Prof. Guetta revealed, “Within two days of the procedure, the patient was discharged home andnd his prognosis is good.”