INDIANAPOLIS - A medical trial in Indiana could revolutionize heart valve replacement, a sugery affecting an estimated 100,000 people in the United States each year. Five patients in Indiana are the first in the country to receive the heart treatment that triggers cell growth within the heart to heal damage.
32-year old Stephanie Mason was admitted to Franciscan St. Francis hospital in Indianapolis last week, she was told she needed a replacement tricuspid heart valve and was given three options.
One: a mechanical valve. Two: animal tissue replacement. Three: a new procedure.
"When he told me about the third option, the core matrix, it’s also a tissue replacement but it actually forms to your own tissue and it becomes like your own." Said Mason.
The core matrix is part of an FDA trial, and it is the first valve that allows a patient’s stem cells to regrow new tissue.
Franciscan St. Francis cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Marc Gerdisch helped pioneer the procedure and says the valve lets cells communicate with one another.
"If you were to think of an apartment building it would be the girders and the conduit and the pipes and the apartments would be the cells and the cells have no way to communicate with each other or the outside world without that structure." Explained Gerdisch.
This could be especially helpful for younger patients as the valve is able to grow with the person.
The FDA trial is being conducted at seven other centers across the U.S..
Gerdisch says the method could shape the future of heart valve surgery.
"At present no matter what we use it’s artificial, if we have an opportunity to grow a new valve in all the positions in the heart we could potentially change the direction of heart valve surgery forever." Said Gerdisch.
The FDA trial is being conducted at seven other centers across the U.S..
