CLEVELAND, Ohio – Tricuspid valve regurgitation is a heart condition that affects about one million Americans.
It can lead to heart failure that's difficult to treat.
Now, the first patient in the world is getting a brand new device for patients who have run out of options.
A few months ago, 78-year-old Edward Liebler thought he was out of options.
Liebler's heart was failing and he'd already had four surgeries to fix it.
"Eventually, I began to deteriorate again. Oh, I could hardly walk from one end of my house to the other," Liebler said.
Liebler had a condition called tricuspid valve regurgitation. His right heart valve was leaking, causing blood to pump backwards. The problem was so bad that another major surgery was out of the question.
"He was really, really at the end of life, actually. So, there's no other option for him to, you know, fix the problem," said Dr. Jose Navia, cardiothoracic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.
But doctors at the Cleveland Clinic offered Liebler one last hope -- a new type of valve replacement under development.
Liebler became the first patient in the world to receive the device after the FDA allowed it for compassionate use.
Doctors implanted the valve through the jugular vein in Liebler's neck. The new valve replaced his old, leaky valve.
"Right now, the valve is competent, all the blood is going to the normal direction, forward, not backward," Navia said.
The procedure only required a small incision in the neck. Recovery was only a couple of days in the hospital compared to at least 10 days with traditional open-heart surgery.
"It was a really, really good result for him," Navia said.
For Liebler, it was a last-ditch effort that saved his life.
"I really feel quite good right now," he said.