Doctors close a leaking heart valve in world first

Doctors have performed a history-making heart operation on a 59-year-old woman in Cape Town, Mediclinic SA said yesterday.

The world's first non-surgical closure of a leaking heart valve was performed on Saturday on Marianna Cronje, who was born with her heart on the right side of her chest.

"This procedure is technically extremely difficult in a patient with normal anatomy and has never been done before on someone with [their heart on the right side of their chest]," said cardiologist Hellmuth Weich.

Weich and his team were assisted by two world experts from Lausanne, Switzerland.

"The entire procedure was performed through a needle puncture in the patient's groin," said Weich.

Cronje, of Stellenbosch, had rheumatic fever when she was young and had undergone four open-heart operations in the past 40 years - the last one in 2000.

When her heart valve started leaking, doctors could not operate on her again, and her condition deteriorated to the point where she could not do anything for herself.

Weich said two devices used to close birth defects in children's hearts were used to repair the leak. He said the procedure, which took six hours, went well and Cronje was making "a slow recovery".