Percutaneous Aortic Valve Replacement

Nowadays more and more people suffer from aortic stenosis. It’s such a disease when a person has too narrow valve that limits blood flow. So, the candidates for the percutaneous aortic valve replacement are, in fact, the people who have aortic stenosis and are judged high risk or can’t be operated for open-chest surgery. During ranscatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), a surgeon transports a synthetic valve to the heart through a tiny hole made in groin or in the chest.

The procedure of aortic valve replacement

In our modern world, it’s become possible to implant a heart valve with no open-heart surgery, and as a matter of fact, for the period of the operation, minimally invasive techniques are used by surgeons. Surgeons make use of either a transfemoral (from the leg) or transapical (through the chest) operation, by putting a transcatheter heart valve, and after that they rise and crimp the valve on a delivery catheter. Next step is to thread it through the person’s circulatory system straight into the heart. After getting the patient’s heart, the special balloon with the valve is enlarged, and the transcatheter heart valve is installed on the place of the person’s valve. Actually, this operation is done on a beating heart, and as a result, surgeons don’t need for a cardiopulmonary bypass and linked with it dangers.

New chance for everybody

Nowadays there is a chance for all people of different age with aortic stenosis to be operated and then live happily thanks for modern transcatheter technologies. This new kind of an operation has the ability to treat and restore to health lots of people who can’t be operated with the help of traditional open-heart surgery.

Some more info and history

Percutaneous Aortic Valve Replacement was first made in Europe in 2002. Its consequences have demonstrated the operation to be, in fact, successful in improving functioning in the people who have severe aortic stenosis. But call your attention to the fact that in the USA this operation is in clinical experiment testing, as it hasn’t been endorsed by the FDA yet. And as a result this denotes admission to obtain this treatment is limited to just some group of patients to acquire a data set for the FDA to study.