OU Health team reconstructs heart valve with teen patient’s tissue

Oklahoma City-based Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health used an adolescent patient’s own tissue to reconstruct a leaky heart valve, CBS affiliate KWTV reported Jan. 15.

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The 16-year-old male patient is the first in the world to have the procedure, which took place in June, the report said. 

The patient, who was born with a heart murmur, returned home five days after the procedure and is back to his regular activity levels.

“We used part of his aorta,” Harold Burkhart, MD, chief of the division of cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery at OU Health, told KWTV. “We cut part of the wall out to reconstruct the leaflets with that and then replace his aorta with a patch.”

Other Oklahoma Children’s patients have undergone similar procedures since June, according to the report.

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