CHENNAI : Doctors at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre successfully treated a 79-year-old woman with heart disease through a unique procedure recently.According to a press release, the woman was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis, narrowing of major blood vessels, years ago and was not willing for open heart surgery. She was admitted multiple times earlier elsewhere, for heart failure symptoms and was continuing medical therapy.
Three weeks ago, she came to Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre (SRMC) with acute heart failure with decreased heart pumping.After initial medical stabilisation, she underwent a coronary angiogram. Doctors found she had a severe left coronary artery, an artery supplying blood to the heart, system disease with significant amount of calcification and accumulation of calcium. Her echocardiogram confirmed densely calcified aortic valve with severe stenosis.
The patient's surgical risk calculation by Society of Thoracic Surgeons, USA, showed a mortality of 9-10 per cent. So, she was advised to have Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), a minimally invasive procedure for aortic valve replacement for people who are considered as high risk for open heart surgery, with angioplasty. In TAVR, the valve is repaired without removing the old, damaged valve.
A replacement valve is placed into the aortic valve. It is done through minimally invasive procedure, where a catheter is passed through the femoral artery to the heart and the new valved is placed.The patient was kept in ICU for two days and shifted to the ward on the third day. Angioplasty with TAVR is a very high risk procedure and doctors at SRMC did it successfully.