The teams of Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Imaging from Hospital da Luz Lisboa performed the first intervention to repair a severe insufficiency of the tricuspid valve via catheterization, resorting to a Pascal device. This is an innovating treatment, available since 2022, and fast expanding in Europe and the USA. The severe tricuspid valve insufficiency is one of the most common heart diseases. Patients usually present multiple diseases associated and in many cases, can no longer be treated via conventional surgery, given the high risk involved. The Pascal system was used by the Hospital da Luz Lisboa teams in an intervention carried out on March 23 this year, on a 79-year old female patient. A month after, her clinical evolution was very positive, with a persistent reduction of regurgitation, and a decrease of the oedemas and fatigue. The Pascal system: Is mostly indicated in patients with severe or torrential tricuspid insufficiency, even in patients with limited symptoms, given the prognostic improvement associated. Allows to repair the affected valve via catheterization guided by intraoperative ultrasound, being an alternative to the open-heart surgery. The procedure consists in the insertion of a catheter through a small incision in the groin, which is then guided to the heart for repairing the valve. Enables the patient to be discharged from hospital in 24 hours. The procedure at Hospital da Luz Lisboa was carried out by a multidisciplinary team integrating cardiologists specialized in hemodynamics (namely, Rui Campante Teles , Pedro Araújo Gonçalves and Manuel Almeida ), 3D echocardiography and anaesthesiology (namely, Regina Ribeiras , Marisa Trabulo e Filipa Aguiar), assisted by nurses and technicians of this institution. Hospital da Luz Lisboa is the private hospital unit with the largest number of non-surgical aortic valvular interventions. The introduction of the Pascal device for severe tricuspid valve insufficiency is reflexive of a continual bet on innovation, with treatments that represent an effective added value for the patient.
