TMVR – Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Replacement Surgery

Dear Patient,

We would like to inform you about a new innovative surgery TMVR, transcatheter mitral valve replacement, developed in Israel by a leading Israeli cardiac surgeon Prof. Ehud Raanani, Director of the Sheba Heart Center, and Dr. Boris Orlov, Director of the mitral valve insufficiency service, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Ha Shomer.

The Israeli TMVR technology will become an alternative to open heart surgery. The invention is a system for transplanting and replacing the diseased mitral valve through catheterization, a minimally invasive process, instead of a complex process of open heart surgery, that is customary today.

Prof. Raanani says that this Israeli solution may help many heart patients who suffer from insufficiency and leakage of the mitral valve (Mitral regurgitation), which is the most common heart valve disease.

The transcatheter mitral valve replacement as minimally invasive method was developed at the Sheba’s technology company Innovalve Bio Medical in Israel. The company was established six years ago by a hospital based on the invention of heart surgeons and the company’s chief scientist Prof. Ehud Raanani.

About three years ago, the Innovalve company completed the development of the system, and after receiving the necessary approvals from the American FDA, it began implantations as part of initial clinical trials. So far, more than 40 transplants have been performed. So now any international patient can get an unique surgery TMVR for mitral valve replacement.

Prof. Ehud Raanani – Cardiologist. Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery, Chaim Sheba Medical Center. Specialist in Bypass surgery CABG, Valves repair or replacement, MAZE, heart tumors.

Prof. Raanani explains how transcatheter mitral valve replacement works

Prof. Raanani explains that transcatheter mitral valve replacement he developed with his colleagues provides a solution to a very common problem of mitral valve leakage: “It is the valve that separates the left atrium from the left ventricle. The only good solution currently for patients suffering from this problem is open heart surgery. There is another catheter solution called Mitraclip, which is good for some patients, but its effectiveness is not complete.”

A CT image showing the valve of an Innovalve (the white part) implanted in a human being
(Photo: Innovalve)

According to prof. Raanani, “There are many patients who suffer from the problem of a leaky mitral valve, and they don’t really have a solution, because they can’t really undergo open heart surgery, so they go into heart failure, and this affects both their quality of life and their life expectancy, and many of them die. We are talking about millions of such people throughout the Western world, in the United States and Europe, who do not have a good solution for this valve. Because this is a great need in medicine, all the major companies in the world have invested a lot of money in trying to develop this type of valve, by catheterization, and they have not succeeded because it is very difficult to anchor and reach this valve, as it is located in a very complex place inside the heart.”

So what is so special about the Israeli invention?

From Prof. Raanani words: “Our mini invasive valve replacement technology also makes it possible to reach this difficult place in the heart, and moreover to anchor the valve in a good way while the heart is working, because this whole procedure is done on a beating heart. We enter through the groin and guide this valve to its place.”

Sources:

Sheba Hospital

ynet.co.il