Doctors' Digest

Treatment for a leaking heart valve - New minimally invasive MitraClip® procedure to treat mitral regurgitation.

Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals have been performing a new minimally invasive procedure to treat mitral regurgitation that has seen promising outcomes. Mitral regurgitation (MR) is leakage of blood backward through the mitral valve each time the left ventricle contracts. The leaking valve causes blood to flow the wrong way and back into the left atrium. This makes the heart work harder to push blood around the body. Patients may experience fatigue, shortness of breath and worsening heart failure. MR can also put further pressure on the pulmonary vessels and in severe cases this can result in congestion in the lungs.