WUHAN, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese surgeons are celebrating a breakthrough in the treatment of heart diseases that reduces symptoms and slows the progression of heart failure by implanting a new type of atrial shunt device in a patient.
A medical team of surgeons at Wuhan Union Hospital, in central China's Hubei Province, inserted a shunt device they developed into the heart of a 68-year-old woman patient in late April. She was discharged from hospital on May 5 as her heart's condition improved.
Heart failure does not mean the organ stops beating. It occurs when your heart muscles become stiff and are unable to relax normally. As a result, the pressure inside your left atrium, a key part of the heart, and lungs increases. Patients with this problem can have an atrial shunt implanted, which can reduce the atrial pressure, slow the progression of heart failure and improve survival rate.
The aforementioned patient suffered from this disease for many years. Despite having a cardiovascular surgery seven years ago, she suffered from fatigue, weight loss, tight chest and shortness of breath, according to a hospital statement.
"The drugs were ineffective, and a heart transplant was not suitable for her as her left atrial expanded. This increased the size of her heart, which severely squeezed her other organs," said Dong Nianguo, a leading Chinese heart surgeon and head of the medical team.
The atrial shunt device, which Dong's team developed, was approved for clinical trials. "That's the only option," Dong said. With the patient's consent, the device was implanted and deployed by Dong via a minimally invasive surgery on April 30.
The shunt, roughly the size of a coin, is a disk made of wire mesh with a central hole. "It looks like a super tiny UFO," explained Dong. He named the device "D-shant," with the letter "D" representing the initial of his last name, and "shant" being the slang for a drink in Britain.
"I hope the device can give my patients joy, just like when you drink good wine," Dong told Xinhua.
PROMISING CURE
According to Dong, the device was developed since 2016 and obtained several patents at home and abroad. Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Heart Center in Singapore also contributed to the creation.
Compared with other shunt devices already in clinical trials overseas, the Chinese product is recyclable and can be removed via surgery at any time if it were found dysfunctional in patients, Dong noted.
The device alone is priced around 10,000 yuan (about 1,428 U.S. dollars) and the whole surgery costs nearly 20,000 yuan.
There are about 10 million patients with heart failure in China. The mortality rate is high, with approximately 50 percent of the patients dying within five years of diagnosis.
According to Dong, for patients who are in the later stages of heart failure, drugs have little effect and heart transplants are the only solution. Organ transplants, however, are limited due to the lack of donors.
"Every year, only about 500 heart transplants are performed in China each year, while about 800,000 patients need organ donation. Many have died while waiting," said Dong, who performs more than 100 heart transplants annually. "The atrial shunt is a very promising cure to prolong patients' lives and buys them more time to wait for a heart transplant." Enditem
