Interventional cardiologists at UNC’s Structural Heart Disease Program, John P. Cavare, MD, MHS, FACC, and Matthew A. Cavender, MD, MPH, FACC, and their collaborative team performed the first transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement in the clinical setting. It was conducted. , an innovative treatment for patients living with a common type of valvular heart disease.

chapel hill, north carolina – For the first time in North Carolina, the Structural Heart Team at UNC Hospitals performed transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement in a clinical setting. The implant, only the 12th in the United States, is an innovative treatment for patients with tricuspid regurgitation (TR), a common type of heart valve disease.

“We now have a percutaneous, minimally invasive method to repair tricuspid regurgitation and provide valve replacement without the need for open-heart surgery,” said UNC Hospital and FACC Structural said John Vabarre, MD, MHS, FACC, medical director of the Heart Disease Program. Associate Professor, UNC School of Medicine. “He can only do this kind of work at a place like UNC, where he has a spirit of collaboration and a passion for advancing technology.”

Approximately 5 in 1,000 people in the United States have severe tricuspid regurgitation. This condition occurs when the tricuspid valve, the valve that separates the right atrium and right ventricle of the heart, does not close properly. As a result, blood is not pumped into the lungs to provide oxygen, but instead flows back into the body.

Without treatment, this condition can be life-threatening. Fluid builds up in the abdomen and legs, weakening the heart muscle and can cause fatigue, low energy, shortness of breath, and even kidney failure. Medications such as diuretics can help reduce swelling caused by fluid buildup, but repairing leaky valves previously required open-heart surgery.

“Many of these patients, including our first patient, are too sick to undergo major open-heart surgery,” Bavarre said. “This procedure is more minimally invasive. It is done via a catheter and wires inserted into a blood vessel in the groin and allows a new tricuspid valve to be implanted in place of the old one.”

The EVOQUE Tricuspid Valve Replacement System, developed by Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, is the first transcatheter treatment to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the treatment of tricuspid regurgitation.

The EVOQUE system is indicated for improving the health status of patients with severe TR who are deemed appropriate by their cardiac team for tricuspid valve replacement and who are symptomatic despite optimal medical therapy.

The UNC Heart Valve Clinic, an American College of Cardiology-accredited Transcatheter Valve Center of Excellence, is one of 20 centers in the United States selected for valve implantation because of UNC’s advanced expertise. It is currently the only center in North Carolina performing this procedure.

The same team, led by Dr. Vavalle and Dr. Thomas Caranasos as co-principal investigators, participated in the TRISCEND II clinical trial that confirmed the safety and efficacy of the EVOQUE valve, ultimately leading to FDA approval.

This surgery requires a diverse team of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac anesthesiologists, and advanced imaging technicians. John Vavarre, M.D., is joined by his colleagues Matthew Cavender, M.P.H., chief of cardiac surgery, John Iconomidis, M.D., Ph.D., chief of cardiac surgery, and anesthesiologist Emily Teeter, M.D., FASE, and diagnostic imaging specialist Telsa. Collaborated on this case with Dr. Thomas Weikert.

Media contact: Kendall DanielsCommunication Specialist, UNC Health | UNC School of Medicine