New Program Offers Expert Multidisciplinary Care for Advanced Valvular and Structural

The new Structural Heart Disease Program at Brigham and Women?s
Hospital provides highly specialized, multidisciplinary evaluation and
care for patients with advanced and complex valvular and structural
heart disease.
Comprised of a renowned team of specialists in cardiovascular medicine
and surgery, including cardiology, interventional cardiology, cardiac
surgery, cardiovascular imaging, and cardiac anesthesia, the Program
enables patients to be evaluated by multiple specialists in one visit.
These specialists collaborate closely in the development of a
treatment plan ? often using multiple modalities ? designed to deliver
the best outcome for each patient.
Groundbreaking Clinical Trials
The team of experts in the Program participates in leading clinical
trials and is currently enrolling patients in the PARTNER trial, a
national, multi-center, randomized trial for patients with aortic
stenosis who are at high risk for conventional surgery.
The team recently completed the first percutaneous aortic valve
replacement as part of this trial, placing a 26mm SAPIEN prosthesis
via the transfemoral route, with vascular access and closure done
entirely percutaneously. In the future, patients will be treated using
either a percutaneous or transapical approach. New trials for patients
with mitral regurgitation are expected within the year.
Advanced Treatment Options
The team of specialists in the Program collaborates to offer a range
of advanced procedures, including:
? Percutaneous valve replacement;
? Aortic and mitral valvuloplasty;
? Catheter-based closure of periprosthetic valvular leaks in high risk
or inoperable patients;
? ?Hybrid? approaches to combined coronary and valvular heart disease.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical
School, is consistently ranked as one of the nation's leading
hospitals. With a state-of-the-art cardiovascular center & orthopedic
center of excellence, BWH is committed to excellence in patient care
with expertise specialty of medicine and surgery.