HonorHealth performs first non-surgical heart valve replacement in AZ

HonorHealth Research Institute performed a non-surgical replacement of an aortic heart valve for patients with aortic regurgitation in October. This was Arizona’s first non-surgical replacement of an aortic valve, the heart’s blood doorway to the body. This procedure provides an alternative for those patients who don’t qualify for open-heart surgery.

David G. Rizik, M.D., medical director of the Cardiovascular Research Division at HonorHealth Research Institute, joined Arizona Horizon to talk about the procedure and its importance.

“The aortic heart valve is the main doorway out of the heart,” Rizik said. “When the heart pumps or squeezes, all that blood has to go through the aortic valve.”

The procedure uses an experimental J-Valve, delivered through large arteries, through the aorta, and inside the heart through a catheter. It replaces the patient’s leaky valve at the point where the left ventricle connects to the aorta. If the procedure is successful, the clinical study would lead to a larger clinical trial that could eventually lead to FDA approval of the J-Valve and broad commercial use.

“That doesn’t mean that the heart surgeon and the cardiologist are in competition with each other,” Rizik said. They develop a team and work in collaboration with each other and make a decision for each patient. Are you a better surgical candidate or a better catheter-based valve replacement?

The J-Valve was created by JC Medical Inc., a New York-based company primarily engaged in the design and development of transcatheter valve replacement products for the minimally invasive treatment of structural heart diseases.