Expandable Valves for Congenital Heart Diseases

Summary: Surgeons at the Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts have quite recently implanted an expandable prosthetic heart valve into several children with Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP). These expandable prosthetic valves differentiate from the traditional prosthetic valves because they can be expanded when the child grows while traditional valves have a fixed diameter and cannot be altered once it is inserted into the heart. The valve is expanded through cardiac catheterization. This new advancement helps growing individuals avoid repeated heart surgery for the valve as their heart outgrows the valve. The replacement valve is only used on individuals with extremely sever cases of valve problems such as MVP. If the problem is not severe, the problem will just simply be repaired. This new valve, called The Melody, is since been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for replacement of the heart's pulmonary valve, but not yet for the mitral valve. Emani, a surgeon at the Boston Children's Hospital says, "We wanted to find a solution that would allow us to expand a valve as a child grows and avoid taking them back into the operating room." This also lowers the chances for lung swelling and requires less recovery times in young children.

Relevance: This topic is relevant to out unit on the circulatory system and the respiratory system. First of all, it discusses the valves (specifically the pulmonary valve and mitral valve) of the heart, that prevent back flow. This article talks about what can go wrong with the valves and what can be done. It talks about how these valves can be replaced if no longer working properly and how they have no developed to be expandable. This also relates to the respiratory system because it talks about how the expandable valve can reduce the risk for a lung swelling problem.

October 12, 2012 - Surgeons at Boston's Childrens Hospital
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121003082933.htm