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NICE news: Heart procedure will extend lives

Innovative heart procedure will extend lives of patients with faulty heart valve

Up to 400 patients each year are set to benefit from the procedure being made available more widely

An innovative minimally invasive procedure to repair a heart valve has been approved for use in the NHS for patients who would otherwise be unable to have conventional open heart surgery.

Until now the only option for patients needing a mitral valve repair was open heart surgery which for some older and frail patients would be considered too risky.

But in draft recommendations, NICE has said a procedure which sees the mitral valve repaired without the need for a major operation is safe enough and works well enough to be used under standard arrangements in the NHS.

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