Apollo Hospitals completed a successful MitraClip implant on a 41-year-old male farmer who had waited for over three months in different hospitals for a heart transplant. The patient was back on his feet within a few days after the procedure, and might not even need a heart transplant.

Research has shown that using MitraClip as a bridge to heart transplantation is safe and may even lead to functional improvements that permit patients to be removed from the transplant list.

MitraClip was introduced in India just three years ago. The first MitraClip was implanted in 2003 in a patient in the US. Today over 100,000 patients in more than 50 countries have undergone the MitraClip procedure.

MitraClip implants give a new lease of life for frail and elderly patients who cannot go in for conventional open-heart surgery. The minimally invasive MitraClip procedure is effective in both functional and degenerative mitral regurgitation. The procedure is performed in a cath lab and the device is removable and repositionable.

Repeat hospitalizations are avoided after the MitraClip procedure as compared to conventional surgery, making it economical in the long run, and patients are able to recover and resume life in a very short span of time.