Heart surgery - the wow factor
Cardiologist Peter Scott explains the amazing new technique now available in Canberra.
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00:00So historically you would have had to have had an open heart operation to fix a valve that was
00:05critically narrowed and that's a very complex, difficult procedure which requires a long wait
00:10list in terms of ICU post-operatively or post-care. Whereas now we can do it through a small incision
00:15through a vein in your leg and from that put a new valve into the heart. And recovery time
00:21for that's about one or two days as opposed to perhaps up to two weeks. So that's one area,
00:27especially helping elderly patients who recover much slower. You make a little incision in the
00:32leg and then you pass a tube all the way up to the heart and from there you can deploy what is
00:38essentially a valve on a balloon which you open the balloon and it squeezes in over your old valve
00:42and it just opens and closes back to normal the way it was whenever you were born.
00:46So previously we couldn't provide that and we had to transfer patients to Sydney whereas now
00:50we can do it internally so it's made a big difference.
00:57you