Transmyocardial Laser Revascularisation (TMLR)
TMLR is a type of surgery that uses a laser to make tiny channels through the heart muscle and into the lower-left chamber of the heart (the left ventricle). The left ventricle is the heart's main pumping chamber.
After TMLR, when oxygen-rich blood enters the left ventricle, some of that blood can flow through the tiny channels and carry much-needed oxygen to the starving heart muscle.
Doctors came up with the idea for TMLR by studying the hearts of alligators and snakes, where blood to feed the heart muscle goes straight from the ventricle and into the muscle, not through coronary arteries. Doctors thought this might work in human hearts, too.
TMLR is surgery, but it can be done while the heart is still beating and full of blood. That means that a heart-lung machine is not needed. Also, surgeons do not cut open the chambers of the heart, so TMLR is not open heart surgery.
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