Hu gives thumbs-up to Wei's team.

Recently, 73-year-old Ms. Hu from Shanghai underwent the transapical septal myectomy in the beating heart via a minimally invasive approach at Tongji Hospital. The operation, which was originally created by the hospital, has significantly resolved the chest distress that had plagued Hu for many years. 

In 2014 Hu started having trouble lifting heavy objects as she would gasp for breath following minimal exertion, and sometimes suddenly became faint. She baulked, however, at the idea being subjected to the trauma and slow recovery rate of traditional surgical procedures given at a local hospital in Shanghai.

In August 2022, Hu's grandson Xiao Qian learned in an online article about the world's first cardiotomy procedure to treat hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy that was available at Tongji Hospital. On Jan. 25 this year, Hu came to Wuhan for the operation.

On Feb. 1, Professor Wei Xiang's team from the hospital successfully removed nine pieces of myocardial tissue from her heart. The following day, Hu was transferred out of the intensive care unit. The chest tightness that Hu had previously experienced significantly abated, and she returned home last week.

Wei said that prior to the development of this new technology, there had not been many surgical operations to treat the condition in China. At present, there are no more than five medical centers in the world that have performed this operation over one hundred times on an annual basis. Tongji Hospital is one of the five.

Editor: Zong Xia