About the Procedure

On January 8th at 6 p.m. Central Time, Trinity Mother Frances Health System’s Center For Advanced Surgery And Technology (CASAT) will host a live Internet webcast to repair or replace a patient’s heart mitral valve. Neelan Doolabh, MD of Turner Cardiovascular Associates in Tyler will perform the surgery.

The heart valve repair can benefit patients who have a weak heart or need repair of a prior valve replacement or repair. The procedure is performed through a 1.75-inch incision between two of the patient’s ribs instead of performing a sternotomy (separating and opening the rib cage through an incision in the sternum). The minimally invasive technique can reduce pain, post-surgical complications and significantly advance patient recovery time.

“The sternotomy is one of the biggest reasons patients delay a needed mitral valve repair or replacement,” said Neelan Doolabh, MD. “The pain and recovery time is reduced substantially with this technique.”

Heart valves are designed to control the direction of blood flow through the heart. The opening and closing of the heart valves produce the sound of the heartbeat. Mitral valve repair or replacement surgery is performed because of a diseased mitral heart valve. The surgery is done while the patient is under general anesthesia.

The Trinity Mother Frances Heart Institute is part of the Center For Advanced Surgery And Technology (CASAT) at Mother Frances Hospital. Procedures such as Stereotaxis Mapping and Ablation, Robotic Prostatectomy and Robot Assisted Bypass can be viewed by visiting www.casattexas.org.

For more information on the Center For Advanced Surgery And Technology, visit www.casattexas.org. For more information on additional services available through Trinity Mother Frances Health System, visit www.tmfhs.org.