Cardiology breakthrough at Shaare Zedek: Heart defect repaired with stitch

In a breakthrough for cardiology in Israel, doctors repaired a heart defect in a 38-year-old woman at Shaare Zedek Medical Center without implanting a foreign object in her body. The defect was corrected on Sunday with a stitch, and without putting the patient under full anesthesia, the hospital reported. The procedure, the first done in Israel, was a success and the women was released to her home Monday in good health.”For the first time in Israeli cardiology, at the beginning of the week, an innovative procedure was done to close a heart defect with a stitch and with no need for an implant between the heart’s chambers,” said Dr. Danny Dvir the head of Shaare Zedek’s new cardiac catheterization unit.”This is a breakthrough because up until this day an implant was always inserted that would often cause issues with the heart rate and prevent future access to other parts of the heart,” said Prof. Mony Shubi, the director of the cardiac catheterization’s valve department.The patient gratefully thanked the team, saying, “they treated me like their daughter.”