Cardiology Innovations: Transcatheter Mitral Valve Re-Replacement & Re-Repair Procedures with Dr. Jason Rogers
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Medical Expert: Jason Rogers, MD, Clinical Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Director of Interventional Cardiology at UC Davis Health
Page last updated: June 23, 2021
As we live longer lives, patients with heart valve disease are considering the lifelong management of valvular conditions including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation.
For this reason, patients are asking important questions if a re-operation, or second intervention, is required. Given recent innovations specific to non-invasive, transcatheter heart valve therapies, there is extensive patient interest to learn how these next generation devices – which do not require an incision to the chest – may be used if a valve needs to be re-replaced or re-repaired.
To learn more about this exciting topic as it relates to the mitral valve, we just interviewed Dr. Jason Rogers, the Clinical Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Director of Interventional Cardiology at UC Davis Health in Sacramento, California. As you may know, Dr. Rogers specializes in transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr) and transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) procedures. Plus, Dr. Rogers is the national co-principal investigator on the SUMMIT Clinical Trial investigating the Tendyne TMVR device.
Key Learnings from Dr. Rogers
Dr. Rogers had several important points to consider:
- The use of TMVR and TMVr devices for mitral valve re-operations is currently happening at cardiac centers that specialize in heart valve therapy.
- For failing bioprosthetic mitral valve replacements, a TMVR device with tissue leaflets can be inserted through the groin. Patients often leave the hospital one day after a “valve-in-valve” procedure that requires no incision to the patient’s chest and patients do not need to be on the heart-lung machine during the procedure.
- For failing mitral valve repairs, a TMVr device known as the MitraClip can be used to bring the leaflets together to reduce blood leakage, or regurgitation, across the valve. Similar to the TMVR device, a MitraClip does not require an incision to the patient’s chest and the patient does not need to undergo cardiopulmonary bypass (the heart-lung machine).
- Dr. Rogers believes it is important for patients to learn more about these procedures. “These are important therapies for patients to know about,” stated Dr. Rogers
Many Thanks to Dr. Jason Rogers
On behalf of the patients at HeartValveSurgery.com, many thanks to Dr. Rogers for sharing his clinical experiences and research with our community. To learn more about Dr. Jason Rogers, please click here.
Keep on tickin!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
Video Transcript:
Adam Pick: Hi, everybody, it’s Adam with heartvalvesurgery.com. Today, we’re talking all about transcatheter mitral valve reoperations. I am thrilled to be joined by Dr. Jason Rogers, who is a leading Interventional Cardiologist at UC Davis Health in Sacramento, California. Dr. Rogers, thanks for being with us today.
Dr. Jason Rogers: Thank you, Adam, for having me today. I really appreciate it.
Adam Pick: Yeah, and so we are just having a fascinating conversation about what could potentially happen if I’m a patient, and my mitral valve replacement starts to fail, or if I’ve had a mitral valve repair, and my ring or annuloplasty starts to fail. You’re doing some really interesting procedures up there in Sacramento. Can you share with the patients what you’re doing with these transcatheter devices?
Dr. Jason Rogers:Yes, that is a very important question, Adam, for patients. Just to be clear, the procedures are being done at multiple centers in the US and probably one close to many of the patients that watch your site. In terms of patients with failing bioprosthetic mitral valves, instead of reoperation, we can often replace these through a procedure using a catheter in the groin. Then a valve is placed inside the bioprosthetic valve by inflating it with a balloon. This is called valve in valve replacement. Patients can go home the next day. This is FDA approved.
Regarding the ring, for those patients, the leaflets often are not touching very well, but they’re still present. For something like that, we could use a mitral clip. This is a small clip, again, that can be placed through the groin without open heart surgery to bring the leaflets together and really reduce the leaking. That is something also that can be performed at numerous centers. These are important therapies for patients to know about.
Adam Pick: Dr. Rogers, I can’t thank you enough for all the great work that you and your team at UC Davis Health System in Sacramento, California are doing. What we’re trying to really help patients understand here is that the management of valve disease is not a day-by-day thing. This is a lifelong consideration.
I’m sure there are patients out there getting a lot of comfort knowing that there are potential opportunities for a transcatheter non-invasive solution to help them should their initial procedure unfortunately not sustain the durability. On all their behalf, thank you so much. As we always say here, keep on ticking.
Dr. Jason Rogers: Thank you, Adam.
