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“You had no breathing tube, no catheter in your bladder, you could return to work the next day, you could be driving the next day. These are things that I think the average person can’t believe are feasible in 2017,” said Wood, who practises at Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital in the same city.

The aortic valve is the most important of four heart valves and leads from the heart to the body, supplying blood to the head, lungs and muscles. It wears out and narrows with age.

The median age of patients in the study was 84, and their symptoms include chest pain and shortness of breath.

“Once you start getting symptoms, 50 per cent of people are going to be dead within a year so it’s absolutely imperative that you fix that valve,” Wood said.

The new innovation builds on a technique pioneered by Wood’s colleague Dr. John Webb in 2005, which still required general anesthetic and a week-long hospital stay.

“By doing less, actually the patients did better,” he said of their work done at the Centre for Heart Valve Innovation involving St. Paul’s, VGH and the University of British Columbia.

“It’s truly been a revolution,” he said, adding the latest procedure means quality of life for patients and cost savings for the health-care system, aspects his team are looking into quantifying.