Mater Hospital first in Ireland to perform new heart procedure

The Mater Hospital has become the first hospital in Ireland to carry out a fully percutaneous mitral valve replacement, offering a new treatment option to patients considered too medically vulnerable for conventional open-heart surgery.

The procedure allows doctors to insert a new mitral valve through a catheter placed in a vein in the patient’s groin.

This removes the need to open the chest through the breastbone and can substantially reduce the patient’s recovery time.

For people with serious underlying health conditions, conventional surgery can carry such a high risk that no treatment is possible.

The new procedure offers an alternative for some of these patients.

The mitral valve is one of four valves controlling the flow of blood through the heart.

Mitral valve disease can prevent it from opening or closing properly, disrupting blood flow and causing symptoms including breathlessness and fatigue.

Demand for the new treatment is expected to increase as people live longer with complex forms of heart disease.

The procedure is carried out at the Mater by a multidisciplinary team led by consultant cardiologists Prof Ivan Casserly and Prof Ronan Margey.

It brings together expertise from cardiologists, anaesthesiologists, physiologists and specialist nurses.

Prof Casserly described the introduction of the treatment as a major advancement in cardiac care in Ireland.

“Until now, patients with significant mitral valve disease who weren’t well enough for open-heart surgery had very few options left to them,” he said.

“This procedure gives us a new way to treat the condition without opening the chest and for patients it means a much faster recovery, being back on their feet within days rather than months.”

Among the first patients in the State to undergo the procedure was 62-year-old Finglas grandfather Derek Toomey.

Mr Toomey (pictured above during his treatment) had lived with heart problems for most of his life and was diagnosed in 2023 with a severely narrowed and calcified mitral valve.

He was told that conventional surgery would carry too great a risk because of severe underlying lung disease and that no other treatment was available.

The Mater contacted him three months ago and offered him the new procedure, which was carried out in June.

Mr Toomey said his condition had severely restricted his daily life before the treatment.

“I was very sick before the surgery,” he said. “I couldn’t carry a bag of shopping and I’d have to stop seven or eight times just walking for a couple of minutes to catch my breath.

“I was told that nothing could be done as the traditional surgery required would be too risky for me. When I was contacted about the new surgery I was delighted to be offered a chance to get my health back.”

He said the improvement following the procedure was rapid.

Derek Toomey, pictured recently, feeling much better at his Grandchild’s christening

“Within three days of having the surgery I was walking round the hospital without stopping once,” he said.

“It’s given me my life back.”

Mater Hospital chief executive Josephine Ryan Leacy said the procedure reflected the hospital’s role in developing cardiac care in Ireland.

“This is an example of the Mater’s position at the forefront of innovation in cardiac care in Ireland,” she said.

“Our clinical teams continue to bring the most advanced treatments to patients and this milestone reflects the expertise and ambition of our staff.”