Interventional cardiologists at the Seattle-based UW Medicine Heart Institute performed the first minimally invasive heart tumor removal using a catheter-delivered device July 27.
The procedure only took James McCabe, MD, and Zachary Steinberg, MD, 30 minutes to complete. The 54-year-old patient avoided the typical open-heart surgery and significant recovery standard for heart tumor removals.
"I think we just saved Mr. Holland a lot of money and anxiety," Dr. McCabe said in a UW Medicine news release. "He went home the same day. We didn't need to put him on a heart-lung machine, and he didn't spend five days in the hospital. And now he is not waiting another two years until his tricuspid valve suddenly stops working."
The catheter-delivered retrieval device was approved by the FDA in May 2022.