St. Luke's unveils center for structural heart and vascular interventions

MANILA, Philippines — St. Luke’s Medical Center recently unveiled its Center for Structural Heart and Vascular Interventions (CSHVI). With this facility, the hospital will now be able to offer comprehensive, albeit minimally invasive options of care for patients with complex heart and vascular diseases, as it is designed to pioneer the expansion of such options that will finally address their specific conditions.

Also envisioned as a center for advanced training and research on structural heart and vascular diseases, the facility emphasizes the use of expanded multidisciplinary teams of care and quality-controlled environments.

The new St. Luke's Center for Structural Heart and Vascular Interventions combines advanced technology, hybrid operating theaters, and optimized imaging systems. Patients with complex cardiovascular diseases who are either at high risk or do not desire standard open-heart surgical interventions will have more minimally invasive alternatives to choose from. 

The center is led by Dr. Fabio Enrique Posas, who is said to be country's pioneer in transcatheter valve replacement and endovascular aortic aneurysm repair procedures. 

"At St. Luke's Medical Center, we are committed to providing the highest level of care for patients with complex structural heart and vascular diseases," said Dr. Posas. "Our new Center for Structural Heart and Vascular Interventions (CSVI) is equipped with the latest technology, and is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of experts who are passionate about delivering personalized, minimally invasive care to our patients."

 

The team offers coordinated treatment plans tailored to each patient's unique needs through collaboration and a shared commitment to advancing cardiovascular medicine.

The center's comprehensive service offerings include Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), a groundbreaking minimally invasive procedure for treating aortic valve stenosis that can be performed without general anesthesia or surgical cuts. In addition, its team of specialists has pioneered the use of trans-catheter mitral valve repair (Mitra Clip) for leaking mitral valves, and it is expected to expand options for trans-catheter mitral valve replacement and tricuspid valve replacement as well as repairs.

Other advanced catheter-based interventions involve endovascular repair for aortic aneurysms and aortic dissections and hybrid surgical and vascular repairs for patients at extreme risk for standard surgical repairs. Such strategies are associated with faster recovery times, lower procedural complications and mortality.

With the formal launch of the center, the CSHVI is also celebrating another milestone, as it reaches 252 TAVR cases as of December 2023, which solidifies its position as a leader in the field of structural heart interventions. 

To know more about this new center, patients may contact St. Luke's Product Information Hub at 0919-057-7744 (call), 0919-160-7744 (text), or email productinfo@stlukes.com.ph.

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