The Children's Heart Center team at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) performed the first Lebanese percutaneous implantation of a pulmonary valve “Melody” to treat patients with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) instead of performing an open heart surgery which is a much more invasive procedure. The procedures took place last week and the two Lebanese patients with CHD from Shouf and Bekaa areas who underwent the procedures left the hospital in excellent condition. The procedure was performed by a team headed by the Director of the Children's Heart Center Dr. Fadi Bitar, in addition to Drs. Issam El Rassi, Mariam Arabi and Georges Bikhazi from the Anesthesiology Department with the assistance of Dr. Alain Fraisse from the Royal Brompton Hospital, London UK.
The “Melody” is indicated for patients with a dysfunctional right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) conduit. Conduits are surgically implanted valves used to treat congenital heart defects of the pulmonary valve and often require replacement since they have a limited lifespan. Accordingly, “Melody” is unusually beneficial to pediatric patients with RVOT conduits who may require several surgeries over their lifetimes.
The “TPV Melody” insertion is a special procedure used to treat narrowed or leaking pulmonary valve conduits that hinder the proper flow of blood from the heart’s right ventricle to the pulmonary artery, which is responsible for the transport of the blood to the lungs for oxygenation. The conduits get calcified or become leaky with time and instead of performing an open heart surgery to treat the condition, the “Melody” is intended to provide another option to conduit replacement. It is a valve inserted between the right ventricle and the lung artery via a stent and delivered on a special balloon catheter inserted through the groin area and implanted in the required position. The patients usually leave the hospital the next day of the procedure without the scar of the surgery and the accompanied pain and risks of open heart surgery. The “Melody” device recently received the Pre-Market Approval (PMA) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2015 and is being now used in the leading heart centers in the USA and world.
The Children's Heart Center at AUBMC is one of the leading Centers in the region and the only comprehensive Children's Heart Center in Lebanon and is comprised of a team of more than 50 physicians, nurses and allied healthcare providers. The Center’s surgical outcome results are comparable to the leading hospitals in the USA with success rates of 97%. The center has previously reported first of these kind procedures to treat children with CHD in Lebanon and the world, in addition to pioneering worldwide discoveries in the field of Pediatric Cardiology.
With these two procedures being performed at AUBMC, the Children's Heart Center joins the finest heart centers worldwide in delivering state-of-the-art care to the children of Lebanon who can now enjoy this advanced modality of treatment.
