MILWAUKEE -- Instead of a long chest incision and risky open heart surgery, a tiny clip can solve a life-threatening condition – something doctors call the “biggest breakthrough in heart care” in a quarter century.

Milwaukee Hospital Tests Procedure To Replace Open-Heart Surgery

Milwaukee’s Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center took part in the clinical trial for the first its kind technology.

Six months ago, if Jack Walsh of East Troy tried to lay flat in bed, he'd be gasping for breath within an hour. He was getting no sleep, had no appetite and felt exhausted all of the time.

“We have grandchildren who would come over, and the best I could do was sit in a chair and watch them,” Walsh said.

Walsh had a serious and increasingly common problem called mitral regurgitation. The mitral valve in his heart wasn't closing all the way. Blood was leaking back into the atrium, putting a strain on the heart and lungs.

Almost 20 percent of men and women over age 55 have some degree of the condition. Eventually, it can cause a stroke or sudden death.

“If you let it go for a long time, the heart has to work extra time, and that can cause a strain on the heart. It starts enlarging, and then you can develop heart failure which really shortens your life expectancy,” Dr. Tanvir Bajwa, of Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, said.

Walsh had two heart bypass surgeries years ago. Now, at age 77, he is not considered a good candidate for another open-heart procedure. But Walsh heard about a clinical trial going on at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center -- one of an elite group of hospitals chosen to test an invention called the MitraClip. It's a tiny metal-and-mesh device, inserted by a catheter that goes up to the heart through an artery in the groin. When it's deployed by surgeons, it simply clips together the flaps of the mitral valve, and stops the leak. Walsh said it worked like a miracle.

“They went up through the vein, dropped it in, and the very next day I could sleep flat on my back, roll over, sleep all night. No sweat. And it's been like that for six months,” Walsh said.

The mitral valve is normally the first one to go. An estimated 250,000 people a year develop problems with it, and a little clip could be effective on half of them.

Because the procedure is minimally invasive, most patients do go home the next day -- compared to 7 to 10 days in the hospital after open heart surgery. And the “clip” method costs about half as much. Now, Jack Walsh is back at St. Luke's for his 6-month check-up.

Jack's surgeon predicts the MitraClip will change the future of heart care as dramatically as revolutions like angioplasty and stents.

“I think in the last 25 years -- along with the angioplasty and stent -- the treatment of valvular heart disease is one of the major advancements for our patients,” Bajwa said.

“Well I hope a lot more people come in. I really do. Because I would recommend it to anybody,” Walsh said. “It's like getting your life back. That's just about it.”

Before the procedure, Walsh couldn't climb the stairs in his house without stopping half-way up.

“The day I got home, I could actually virtually almost RUN up the steps,” Walsh said.

The FDA is expected to approve the clip method soon for much wider use. Bajwa said it could be just the beginning of similar technological advances.

“I believe that in the next 5 to 6 years, we are going to see second and third generation, and many more devices that we will be able to do this procedure much more simply, and with much less time, and help a lot more patients,” Bajwa said.

Some patients need entire valve replacement so the clip won’t be the answer for everyone. If the FDA approves it, Bajwa believes that the same technology could work on the other three valves of the heart and make a huge difference for hundreds of thousands of patients.