East Slovak Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Košice has made medical history by performing the first heart surgery in the world where a pulmonary valve was made from the patient’s own tissue. In this special surgery, doctors replaced a damaged aortic valve with the patient’s original pulmonary valve. This new approach removes the need for lifelong blood-thinning medications and helps reduce infection risks.
The surgery took almost eight hours and involved two teams working at the same time. One team focused on taking out the damaged aortic valve and replacing it with the patient’s pulmonary valve, while the other team made a new pulmonary valve from the patient's own heart tissue. The patient, 35-year-old Matej Pavlovič, had a congenital heart defect but is now expected to live a healthier life without any foreign materials in his body or daily medications.
Source: TASR
