Cardiologists first to use tool to remove tumor from heart

Interventional cardiologists at the UW Medicine Heart Institute in Seattle recently performed a first-in-human procedure, successfully employing a catheter-delivered device to retrieve a benign tumor from inside a patient’s heart. Drs. James McCabe and Zachary Steinberg (Cardiology) collaborated on the case. The minimally invasive procedure took just 30 minutes and the patient avoided the open-heart surgery typically required for such a tumor removal, as well as the significantly longer recovery.

“I think we just saved (the patient) a lot of money and anxiety. He went home the same day. We didn't need to put him on a heart-lung machine, and he didn't spend five days in the hospital. And now he is not waiting another two years until his tricuspid valve suddenly stops working,” said McCabe.