Cardiologists at Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital Perform Area’s First Heart Valve Repair Procedure Using ‘Tiny Clips’ – Keeping Care Close to Home

WHAT:

Thanks to advances in heart care at Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital, residents in St. George and Southern Utah will no longer have to travel to receive a life-saving procedure to repair a leaky mitral heart valve, a condition that affects millions of people in the United States.

Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital cardiologist Blake Gardner, MD, recently performed the hospital’s first two mitral valve repair procedures using the MitraClip system, a less invasive procedure that involves placing a tiny clip on the mitral heart valve to prevent leakage, using a catheter that avoids patients undergoing major open-heart surgery.

Cardiologists at the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City were involved in early studies of the MitraClip – and were instrumental in pioneering the use of the valve repair procedure in Utah. They helped train cardiologists at Intermountain St. George Regional so that patients in Southern Utah have access to the life-saving procedure close to home.

Published research shows that theMitraClip device reduces risk for hospitalization for patients by half and deaths by nearly 40 percent, while significantly improving quality of life.

Dr. Gardner will talk about the procedure, technology, and benefit for patients. He will be joined on the Zoom press briefing by Ernie Hoffman, the first patient to undergo the procedure at Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital.

WHEN:

10:30 am, MT, Monday, June 28, 2021

WHO:

• Dr. Blake Gardner
  Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital Cardiologist
  
  
• Ernie Hoffman
  Heart Patient

WHERE:

Zoom Video Press Briefing Link Available Upon Request

Graphics, illustrations, photos, and animated video of the procedure are available to media.

###