Transcatheter Aortic Valve Management (TAVR)

Aortic Valve Replacement for Patients Who are Not Candidates for Open Heart Surgery

The cardiovascular team at Good Samaritan Hospital now offers the Transcutaneous Aortic Valve Management program for patients who are not candidates for open heart surgery.

Who is a Good Candidate for Aortic Valve Replacement?

Up to 1.5 million people in the United States suffer from aortic stenosis, a progressive disease that affects the aortic valve of their hearts. Approximately 250,000 of these patients suffer from severe symptomatic aortic stenosis, often developing debilitating symptoms that can restrict normal day-to-day activities, such as walking short distances or climbing stairs. These patients can often benefit from surgery to replace their ailing valve, but only approximately two-thirds of them undergo the procedure each year. Many patients are not treated because they are deemed inoperable for surgery, have not received a definitive diagnosis, or because they delay or decline the procedure for a variety of reasons.

HOW DOES THE AORTIC VALVE REPLACEMENT WORK?

The new approach called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) utilizes a biological valve, crimped onto its stent and folded inside a large-bore catheter. The catheter is then introduced in the groin and threaded up the aorta and inflated within the patient’s native calcified aortic valve eliminating the need for surgical replacement of that valve. The recently completed partner trial for transcatheter valve proved to be significantly superior to medical treatment in inoperable patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis.

This new procedure will allow cardiac specialists at Good Samaritan Hospital to treat elderly patients with critical aortic stenosis who otherwise would have had no other options for treatment of their progressive heart failure.

WHAT THE STUDIES SHOW

Patients who do not receive an aortic valve replacement (AVR) have no effective, long-term treatment option to prevent or delay their disease progression. Without it, severe symptomatic aortic stenosis is life-threatening – studies indicate that 50 percent of patients will not survive more than an average of two years after the onset of symptoms.

For more information about the Transcutaneous Aortic Valve Management program at Good Samaritan Hospital call (213) 977-2239.