Published January 10. 2026 07:50AM<\/p>\n
St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network has reached an important milestone in advanced heart care.<\/p>\n
Members of St. Luke\u2019s Structural Heart Program, an integral part of the award-winning heart and vascular team, were among the first in Pennsylvania to use the Pi\u2011Cardia ShortCut device, an innovative technology designed to make certain high\u2011risk heart valve procedures safer and more predictable.<\/p>\n
The ShortCut device was used during a valve\u2011in\u2011valve transcatheter aortic valve replacement in a patient with a previously implanted surgical bioprosthetic aortic valve. If a patient\u2019s initial valve replacement begins to reach end-of-life, this procedure is done to place a new valve over top of the existing one by a catheter inserted via a small incision in the patient\u2019s groin.<\/p>\n
The procedure was performed by Christopher Sarnoski, DO, section chief of Interventional Cardiology and medical director of Structural Heart Disease, and Jose Amortegui, MD, chief of Cardiac Surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis device represents a major step forward in protecting patients with complex anatomy. It allows us to safely treat individuals who previously had no good options often involving redo open heart surgery,\u201d said Dr. Amortegui.<\/p>\n
Patients who have undergone open\u2011heart surgery to receive a tissue (bioprosthetic) aortic valve often require another valve procedure years later when the first valve wears out. A valve\u2011in\u2011valve TAVR is a minimally invasive way to treat this without repeating open\u2011heart surgery.<\/p>\n
However, some patients have what is known as low coronary height, meaning their heart\u2019s coronary arteries sit very close to the valve. In these situations, when a new valve is placed inside the old one, the old valve\u2019s leaflet can be pushed upward and block blood flow to the coronary arteries. This can be dangerous and potentially life\u2011threatening.<\/p>\n
How ShortCut helps<\/p>\n
The ShortCut device is designed to gently open the old surgical valve\u2019s leaflet before the new valve is implanted. By precisely splitting the leaflet, ShortCut helps:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Prevent the leaflet from blocking coronary arteries.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Make valve\u2011in\u2011valve TAVR safer for patients with low coronary height.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Offer a minimally invasive alternative to repeat open\u2011heart surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore ShortCut, the only other options for these high\u2011risk patients were a redo sternotomy, which carries significantly higher surgical risk, or placing stents in a snorkel fashion out into the aorta, which further limits repeat coronary procedures,\u201d said Dr. Sarnoski. \u201cShortCut provides a safer and more durable solution for many of these complex cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead<\/p>\n
Experts estimate that by 2035, more than 40,000 valve\u2011in\u2011valve procedures will be performed in the United States each year. A significant portion of these cases will require leaflet\u2011modification technologies like ShortCut to ensure safe coronary blood flow.<\/p>\n
For more information about St. Luke\u2019s heart valve program, visit sluhn.org\/heart.<\/p>\n
From left, along bedside: Jesse Tate, RT; Jose Amortegui, MD; Christopher Sarnoski, DO, performing one of the first Valve-in-Valve Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (ViV TAVR) in the state using the Pi-Cardia ShortCut device in November. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published January 10. 2026 07:50AM St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network has reached an important milestone in advanced heart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-83248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}