CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A cardiac robotic surgery team at UVA Health University Medical Center was the first in the world to perform a mitral valve repair using the Memo 4D Curve, a newly approved device used to treat mitral regurgitation, one of the most common heart diseases, according to UVA Health and device maker Corcym.

The team led by Michael Ibrahim, MD, PhD, director of UVA Health’s Robotic Surgery Program is the only one of its kind in the Commonwealth and performed the procedure last month.

“We feel very privileged that we were trusted to be the first center in the world to put in this new technology,” Ibrahim said during a media call.

“One of the key parts of a mitral valve repair includes mitral annuloplasty which is basically restoring the fibrous ring the valve inserts into a normal shape and size,” Dr. Ibrahim said. “That has been around conceptually since the 1970s when mitral valve repair became standardized and the surgery, we just did was the first use in humans of a newly approved type of mitral valve repair band that has unique features that really allow for the natural movement of the heart.”

Although not exclusive to robotic surgery, he said it’s able to be used robotically.

He described the ring to be softer and more physiologically compatible with the natural heart movements.

“The mitral valve normally is responsible for allowing blood flow from the lungs to be in the correct direction, so blood enters the left side of the heart and goes through the mitral valve, and when the heart squeezes the mitral valve’s job is to prevent it from going back into the lungs,” said Dr. Ibrahim. “And in patients with mitral valve regurgitation there’s a failure of that mechanism where the valve leaflets are not working properly and blood goes the wrong way back into the lungs.”

He said it can be a congenital problem at birth but typically occurs “through wear and tear throughout life in patients who are middle aged and above”.

Ibrahim noted it’s a slowly regressing condition and often patients can adjust to the flow and be asymptomatic, but it becomes an issue when the patient experiences a cough, shortness of breath, fatigue when exerting themselves and can be at risk for developing atrial fibrillation and that can lead to diagnoses and a possibility of needed repair.

One of the advantages of this procedure, according to Ibrahim, is a patient after heart surgery typically has a seven-day hospital stay followed by instructions to not lift over ten pounds for a period of time after they go home.

After this procedure, patients can go home after two days and there are no post-operative instructions when they get there.

Corcym is a Milan, Italy based company “dedicated to cardiac surgeons”, according to its website, designed devices and technologies toward more advanced cardiac surgeries.