MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU! To celebrate this International STAR WARS Holiday, we are bringing you Episode 2 of our tetralogy spotlighting a new frontier in veterinary medicine. In this episode of "A New Hope For Dogs With Mitral Valve Disease" we speak with one of the galaxy's most renowned veterinary heart surgeons, the Jedi Master, Dr. Chris Orton, to discuss more specifics on TEER| V-Clamp, the groundbreaking procedure that he and his team at Colorado State University have pioneered over the last 2 years.
In episode 1 we gave an overview of the new medical breakthrough, which Dr. Orton and his team have pioneered at Colorado State University. The new minimally-invasive procedure is called Transcatheter Edge To Edge Mitral Valve Repair (also known as TEER or the V-Clamp Procedure), and this new technology has completely revolutionized the way mitral vale disease (MVD) can be treated in dogs.
Now in episode 2, we discuss more specifics of the new procedure and how it works to repair the mitral valve, as well as comparisons between TEER and open heart surgery. This is truly a new frontier of veterinary medicine. Stay tuned for the rest of the TEER trilogy (or tetralogy -no pun intended) where we will discuss patient selection, Dr. Orton's journey to becoming a leading authority in veterinary heart surgery, and more.
In the future, the procedure will become much more widely available, as more centres will be able to offer the procedure. Dr. Orton and his team at Colorado State University are committed to training other centres to help bring this amazing new treatment to more dogs with mitral valve disease.
TEER uses transesophageal echocardiography and fluoroscopy to guide placement of the V-Clamp device (developed by Hongyu Medical in Shanghai, China) to reduce the leak (backwards flow of blood) across a diseased mitral valve. The clamp mainly works by addressing prolapse of the valve.
We hope you enjoy this episode! Please leave your questions and comments below!

RELATED CONTENT ON OUR CHANNEL:

-A New Hope (Ep.1) For Dogs With Mitral Valve Disease (MVD): TEER V-Clamp Overview
-Dog Heart Murmur -What Does It Mean? Is it Serious?: 
-The Amazing World Of Veterinary Cardiology: 
-IT'S NOT OVER! Grain Free Dog Food & Heart Disease│Twin Trees Vet Talk (FREE VET ADVICE PODCAST)
-Congestive Heart Failure in a Dog / CHF 
- 3 Tips from the Emergency Vet 
-1.7 Preventative & Wellness Care for Pets (Dangers to Avoid #7 of 7) 
-Genetic Heart Disease 
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

-LEARN MORE: TEER Info sheet form Dr. Orton's team at CSU: 
-CSU veterinary team performs first-ever heart valve procedure on schnauzer (Feb, 2020) 
- Liu B, Leach SB, Pan W, Zheng F, Jia L, Zhou X, Li J. Preliminary Outcome of a Novel Edge-to-Edge Closure Device to Manage Mitral Regurgitation in Dogs. Front Vet Sci. 2020 Dec 17;7:59 7879. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.597879. PMID: 33392290; PMCID: PMC7773927: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7773927/
-photo credit: Instagram: @corgnelius
-Diet-associated DCM update from Lisa Freeman (Board-Certified Veterinary Nutritionist at Tufts University): 
-Orthopaedic Foundation for Animals:
-AKC Guide to Responsible Pet Breeding:

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Teaser
0:47 Intro: Christopher Orton, DVM, PhD, DACVS
1:01  What does the video show? Accessing the heart, transesophageal echocardiography, fluoroscopy.
2:18 Mitral Valve Disease Background, valve prolapse
03:10 how the V-clamp works to repair the leak
03:48 The cost of the procedure
It started with a trip to Shanghai Jan 2020, TEER in humans
04:20 credit to Hongyu Medical in Shanghai, China for making second clamp free
04:46  Insurance
05:14  Contrasting open heart surgery for mitral valve repair. Advantages of TEER: minimally invasive, safety, quick recovery, availability 
7:31  Survival data
8:20 Open heart surgery reduces the leak more, but is riskier, longer recovery, but outcomes are similar
9:49  Recovery 
Thank you Dr. Orton!