The London Health Sciences Centre is breaking new ground in heart surgery, becoming the first hospital in North America to use a new technology for repairing damaged heart valves.
James Poulias had a double bypass 15 years ago, so when he started feeling unwell earlier this year he thought it might be his heart.
"I was playing golf and I was short of breath and getting tired. Cutting the grass or walking with my wife, I was feeling the same thing," he says.
Poulias is 81 and has a history of heart problems, and doctors at LHSC felt he was a good candidate for a new treatment to improve blood flow to critically narrowed heart valves called Acurate Ta, which features refinements to prevent leakage.
Heart surgeon Dr. Bob Kiaii explains "One thing it does is pulls the leaflets of the native valve that have got the calcium buildup downwards - not to the side - so that doesn't produce the area where there's extra space of the calcium and providing the area of potential leakage from occuring."
Providing what's called transcatheter aortic valve implantation using the Accurate Ta at LHSC is a North American first.
It's estimated up to 20 per cent of patients needing the procedure would benefit from the new technology.
Dr. Michael Chu, also a heart surgeon, says, "We select high-risk patients, patients with severe aortic stenosis, who are sympotmatic, who are at higher risk than those who would benefit from conventional aortic valve replacement."
Poulias had the procedure in May, five more surgeries were performed in July, and doctors say the outcomes were very favorable.
Chu adds "The performance of the valve has been good and the patients have done very well."
Poulias, a retired restaurateur from Tecumseh, says he noticed an immediate improvement in his health and he's looking forward to maintaining an active lifestyle with his wife.
"[Now I can] be happy with my wife, start taking my trips to Florida in the winter so I can enjoy life."
