Chapters Transcript Video Interventional Cardiology Insight: Managing Acute Mitral Regurgitation Dr. Harry Balian describes the rapid deterioration of a patient with torrential mitral regurgitation — and the decisive intervention that followed. I'm uh Harry Ban. I'm uh an interventional cardiologist, structural cardiologist, director of the cath lab, and chairman of the department of Cardiology at Adventist Health, Glendale. I've been here in this institution since 2005 during my leadership, uh, we have exponentially grown as far as our program, as far as our cath labs, as far as our ability to. Um, be able to take care of our patients, uh, and their different complexities as far as their heart's concerned, not only coronary artery related, but also their structural heart, namely their heart valves in the percutaneous fashion where we don't have to cut the chest open, we can do everything through a small hole in the artery in the groin. It is of utmost importance for a community hospital like Adventist Health that takes care of our Glendale community and and the outskirts. To be able to deliver utmost care advanced care, uh, as we are, uh, so we are able to take care of them in, in, in, in, in a local uh community fashion but also deliver the very advanced skills a couple of weeks ago, uh, there was a, a patient who, who's 72 year old, uh, Hispanic female who went in for a heart cath procedure at a different hospital, uh, and incidentally ended up getting two stents, uh, had a, um, sort of a. Um, complication where there was a perforation of the artery which was taken care of, but, uh, furthermore, um, developed a very profound, uh, leaky heart valve to the point where she was essentially drowning. She was not able to breathe well and she was uh hypertensive, low blood pressure. So I was called about this patient in from a transfer center and communicated with the doctors in the outside hospital. We're able to get the patient in almost immediately and uh within a few hours, uh took her to the cath lab and she actually had torrential mitral regurgitation. Her mitral valve was not closing, uh, and that was the reason why she was in heart failure and also she was, uh, her blood pressure was low. So we were able to get in through the groin and went to the right side of the heart and the left and we're able to actually uh grab the mitral valve leaflets uh and uh put uh two mitral clips on the leaflets. And bring the leaflets together. So a patient in about 45 minutes went from having a very uh disabled heart valve and very sick condition to a fully functional heart valve, and uh uh the procedure took about an hour and uh in the recovery room, I could already tell that she was looking 100% better. She was breathing better, uh, and uh following up on her uh in her room, uh, she, uh, looked like a new person. The following morning, her blood pressure was solid, stable, her breathing saturations were 98% of room air, and we're able to discharge her home. In fact, I just saw her in the office about 5 days ago. And she was there with her family, so appreciative and uh so thankful, uh, able to walk and, and she said, I've never felt this good for like the last 20-30 years and uh and she was extremely, extremely uh grateful for our services. And that to me is uh why I'm here, to be able to help our patients, to be able to give them another chance, to be able to um basically uh give him another uh uh day to, to be happy and, and live healthy. Uh, and that, that's our goal here. That's our mission at Adventist Health, uh, to take care of our patients and deliver, uh, most advanced care, uh, but also make a difference in their lives. Published August 26, 2025 Created by Related Presenters Harry Balian, MD Interventional Cardiology View full profile
