Doctors in Calgary have implanted a sheath around a woman's heart in an attempt to stop it from dangerously enlarging, the first such experimental operation performed in Canada.
The device known as HeartNet was successful installed into the chest of Maggie Thiesen, a Calgary woman suffering from cardiomyopathy.
Cardiomyopathy is the weakening of the heart muscle that leads to the enlargement of the organ. Thiesen's heart is twice as big as it should be and that has caused breathing problems. She also becomes tired quickly.
Doctors at the Foothills Hospital announced Friday they had successfully completed the procedure.
"Whenever you're performing a procedure on someone with a very sick heart, like in Maggie's case, you have to be very cautious because all kinds of things can go wrong," Dr. Paul Fedak told reporters.
"The heart is sick, it's irritable. But I was very happy with how it went."
Fedak, along with Dr. Debra Issac and Dr. Jenagir Appoo, implanted the device during a one-hour procedure on Wednesday.
Doctors say the genius behind the break-through operation is its simplicity. They simply placed a girdle -- little more than a hairnet -- over the heart in order to contain any further growth.
Doctors only need an opening of a few centimetres to install the sheath, made out of elastic nickel titanium, around the heart. Similar procedures have previously involved major surgery.
"Sometimes the simplest things can be the best, especially in medicine with high technology. Less can go wrong with a very simple device," said Fedak.
The procedure is experimental, part of an international study into how to treat this increasingly common health problem. More than 500,000 Canadians suffer from congestive heart failure.
"Given the fact that her heart was big and was weak, we felt that she'd had all the conventional therapies and that she would be a good candidate for this particular study that we're doing," said Issac.
Researchers hope to test the procedure on as many as 300 people. A few dozen such operations have already been performed in the U.S. Doctors in Vancouver and Montreal are also taking part in the trial, but have not yet performed an operation.
Thiesen told CTV Calgary that she was thrilled the operation wasn't invasive.
"Of course, I though the worst -- crack down the middle of my chest. Thank God I didn't have to do that," she said.
After she recovers from the surgery, Thiesen is expected to notice a dramatic improvement in her quality of life. She should be able to breathe with less effort.
With a report from CTV Calgary's Reg Hampton
