Structural Heart Disease Department

The Department of Structural Heart Disease is an integrated department combining interventional treatment of structural heart disease and interventional treatment of coronary heart disease. For valvular heart disease, traditional treatment is mainly based on medication and surgical operation. Surgery requires thoracotomy, causing extensive trauma, taking a long time, and resulting in slow postoperative recovery; many elderly patients, patients with severe lesions, or patients with other comorbidities have difficulty tolerating it. Through interventional catheter techniques, valve function and cardiac structure can be restored, with no need for sternotomy or cardiopulmonary bypass; compared with traditional surgery, trauma is significantly reduced and recovery is faster, making it more suitable for elderly patients who cannot tolerate surgery. The department routinely performs transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), transcatheter mitral valve edge-to-edge repair (mTEER), transcatheter mitral valve-in-valve replacement (TMViV), transcatheter tricuspid valve edge-to-edge repair (tTEER), and transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement. To date, more than 800 minimally invasive valvular procedures have been completed, ranking first in the province and among the leading institutions nationwide in procedure volume. The average age of patients is over 74 years, and the oldest patient was 98 years old. In 2022, it became the cardiovascular center with the highest volume of mitral/tricuspid interventional procedures in China. As one of the first 12 national interventional centers for valvular disease, the structural heart disease team led by President Wang Yan has advanced scientific treatment and management concepts and exquisite technical skills. The team has provided training for more than 30 centers nationwide in this field and has led or participated in dozens of national multicenter clinical studies related to structural heart disease devices. It was the first in the Asia-Pacific region to perform minimally invasive “folding” volume-reduction surgery for ventricular aneurysms and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to perform minimally invasive mitral annuloplasty using the AMEND system; in 2014, it completed the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in Fujian Province; in 2019, it performed the first transcarotid TAVR in Fujian Province and, in the same year, the first transfemoral TAVR for pure aortic regurgitation in the province; in 2020, it performed the first transascending-aortic TAVR in Fujian Province; in 2021, it performed the first transcaval TAVR in Fujian Province (the second case in China); it performed the first TEER procedures in Fujian Province for primary mitral regurgitation, secondary mitral regurgitation, primary tricuspid regurgitation, and secondary tricuspid regurgitation; it was the first in China to use MitraClip to treat hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy combined with mitral regurgitation; it performed the first transapical TAVR in Fujian Province, the first balloon-expandable valve TAVR in the province, the first TMVR-VinV procedure for a failed surgical bioprosthetic valve in the province, the first one-stop double balloon-expandable valve replacement after failure of surgical bioprosthetic valves (mitral and aortic valves) in China, the first TTVR-VinV procedure for a failed surgical tricuspid bioprosthetic valve in the province, and the first trans-left-atrial TMVR-VinV procedure for a failed surgical bioprosthetic valve in China. The department aims to accelerate patient recovery, shorten hospital stays, and improve patients’ inpatient experience. It applies the nursing concept of enhanced recovery to perioperative nursing for structural heart disease; using the specialty as a driving force for the development of the nursing discipline, it conducts perioperative cardiac rehabilitation nursing for structural heart disease valvular interventions, including respiratory training, exercise rehabilitation, neurological rehabilitation, nutritional management, psychological nursing, and more. The ward routinely conducts diversified health education activities and patient discussion meetings, creating a warm and comfortable inpatient environment.