In Global News: Quadruple Valve Surgery in the UAE, MitraClip Access in Japan, and Chewbacca Delivers Transplant News

Patient Care

A teen in Chicago, Illinois, USA, awaiting a heart transplant received the news that a heart was available from his pediatric cardiologist, who dressed up as Chewbacca from Star Wars just for the occasion.

Surgeons in the UAE replaced all four heart valves in a man with infective endocarditis.

A hospital system based in Delaware, USA, plans to launch an app to help monitor infants born with a single ventricle when they are discharged from the hospital after surgery.

Drugs and Devices

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has granted national reimbursement for the MitraClip™ from Abbott, a move that will make the technology more accessible through the country’s health insurance system.

Research, Trials, and Funding

Researchers from the Netherlands presented a proof-of-concept study at the recent European Heart Rhythm Association meeting, showing that putting light-sensitive ion channels into the heart allows it to terminate arrhythmias itself in response to a pulse of light.

Reports of severe myocarditis after cancer treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors are increasing, say researchers from the US and France, and they speculate that this is due both to increased use of these drugs and heightened awareness of this complication.