When a heart valve begins to leak severely, it disrupts the normal flow of blood through the heart, often leaving patients struggling with breathlessness, fatigue, and fluid build-up in the body. The condition becomes particularly challenging to treat in elderly patients, as traditional open-heart surgery may carry significant risks. In such situations, doctors increasingly rely on advanced minimally invasive procedures that allow them to repair the valve without opening the chest.
One such treatment is Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Edge-to-Edge Repair (T-TEER), a highly specialised catheter-based procedure in which a small clip device is guided through a vein to the heart to help the faulty valve close more effectively and reduce backward blood flow. The procedure is considered complex and relatively rare, as it requires advanced imaging technology, precise catheter navigation, and a highly coordinated multidisciplinary cardiac team.
In a significant breakthrough, a 75-year-old patient with severe tricuspid regurgitation and advanced heart failure underwent a minimally invasive repair using India’s indigenously developed TEER system, MyClip. Suffering from breathlessness, fatigue and fluid build-up even at rest, the patient was advised a catheter-based valve repair after evaluation. The complex procedure was successfully performed by Dr. M. Sai Sudhakar and his team at Gleneagles Hospitals, Hyderabad (Fortis Network), marking South India’s first Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Edge-to-Edge Repair (T-TEER) using the MyClip system.
“This procedure marks an important step forward in treating tricuspid valve disease, which has long remained underdiagnosed and undertreated, especially among elderly and high-risk patients,” said Dr. M. Sai Sudhakar. He noted that many patients previously had limited treatment options, particularly when they were not suitable for open-heart surgery. T-TEER now offers a minimally invasive way to repair the valve and improve heart function.
He added that the achievement is even more significant because the procedure used MyClip, an indigenously developed device manufactured in India, which could help reduce treatment costs and expand access to advanced valve therapies.
Dr. Sudhakar appreciated the coordinated efforts of the cath lab, imaging, anaesthesia, nursing and critical care teams, noting that multidisciplinary collaboration is crucial for such complex structural heart procedures.
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