Recently, under the leadership of Professor Mei Ju, the director of the Heart Center of Hefei High tech Cardiovascular Hospital, a 62 year old patient with end-stage heart failure was successfully treated with left ventricular assist device implantation, mitral valve repair, tricuspid valve repair, and left atrial appendage resection. The successful recovery and discharge of the postoperative patient once again confirms the hospital's leading strength in the field of surgical treatment for end-stage heart failure.
The patient is a 62 year old male who experienced chest tightness, asthma, and discomfort without obvious cause 2 years ago. He was hospitalized in an external hospital for drug treatment, but the effect was not satisfactory. Afterwards, the symptoms progressively worsened, accompanied by abdominal and lower limb edema, and the patient was admitted to Hefei High tech Cardiovascular Disease Hospital.
After detailed examination, the patient's preoperative diagnosis was: acute exacerbation of chronic cardiac insufficiency, class III cardiac function (NYHA classification), tricuspid insufficiency, mitral insufficiency, persistent atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes, status after coronary artery bypass grafting, ascites. The heart's pumping function is severely impaired, and drug treatment is no longer able to control the deterioration of the condition. For patients with end-stage heart failure like this, traditional treatment options have been exhausted, and waiting for heart transplantation results in scarce donors and slim opportunities.
Faced with critically ill patients, the Heart Center team of Hefei High tech Cardiovascular Hospital conducted a comprehensive and in-depth evaluation under the leadership of Dean Mei Ju. The team unanimously believes that implanting a left ventricular assist device (commonly known as an "artificial heart") is currently the most effective solution to save patients' lives and significantly improve their quality of life.
After careful preoperative preparation, Dean Mei Ju's team performed four difficult surgeries for the patient in one go, including left ventricular assist device implantation, mitral valve repair, tricuspid valve repair, and left atrial appendage resection. The surgery not only requires precise implantation of an artificial heart, but also simultaneous treatment of severe valve disease and atrial fibrillation, which places extremely high demands on the team's technical level and multidisciplinary collaboration ability.
With superb skills and rich experience, the surgery was successfully completed and the patient's vital signs remained stable.
The success of this surgery was not accidental. As of now, Hefei High tech Cardiovascular Hospital has completed a total of 42 artificial heart surgeries, with an immediate success rate of 100% and a postoperative survival rate of about 90%.
