Lahoud Extolls New TEER Heart Valve Repair Procedure in WCAX-TV Interview
Interventional cardiologist Rony Lahoud, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine, spoke in a WCAX-TV interview about an innovative new minimally invasive heart valve repair procedure called tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) that brings leading-edge cardiac care closer to home for older patients in Vermont and northern New York.
TEER uses a catheter to position a clip on the tricuspid valve to prevent leakage. UVMMC is the only Vermont hospital to offer TEER, performing the state’s first in 2024.
“It was great because we used to nickname it the forgotten valve because it’s a valve that’s hard to reach,” said Dr. Rony Lahoud, a cardiologist at UVMMC. He says in-state treatment is a game-changer for older patients who may struggle to travel or undergo more invasive surgery. “This opened a whole new frontier for patients that would have said no to surgery, or the surgeons would have thought they were too high risk,” Lahoud said.
UVMMC says they’ve performed eight TEERs so far.