“MITRA CLIP” A novel treatment for heart valve disease introducing first time to Kerala

Mitral valve regurgitation (valve leaking) is a common heart disease in clinical practice. In this condition the valve between the left heart chambers doesn’t close completely and it allows blood to leak backwards which results in breathing difficulty and heart faliure.

Common causes for mitral valve regurgitation are Rheumatic heart disease, mitral valve prolapse, Coronary artery disease and infections in the heart valve etc.

severity of mitral regurgitation can be confirmed with an echocardiogram. Conventional treatment option for this disease was open heart surgery in which the damaged valve is replaced with a metalic or tissue valve. But surgery is considered to be high risk for patients with advanced age and other co morbidities. Introduction of Mitra clip is a great hope for many thousands of elderly patients with severe valve leak and heart failure who are unable to undergo open heart surgery.

Mitra clip repairs the damaged mitral valve without opening the chest or heart. In this procedure a small metal clip is attached to the mitral valve through a pin hole via a vein in the leg. The clip stays there permanently and helps the valve to function properly again.

Previously this treatment was available only in developed countries and it is introduced to india very recently. Metromed international cardiac centre (MICC) has done the first successful mitra clipping procedure in kerala. MICC is always there in the front line in introducing advanced treatments for various heart diseases in Kerala.