KIMS feat: Valve in heart set right sans surgery

Bhubaneswar: In what can be termed as a landmark development in the medical history of Odisha, the city based Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) has successfully conducted the first case of Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) at KIMS here June 6.
This procedure was done by cardiologist Dr. Anupam Jena and his team. Dr. Michael Caskey from USA assisted the team in the procedure.
The patient, a 72-year-old female, had her aortic valve narrowed and was having chest pain and difficulty in breathing. After she was examined by a cardiologist and cardiac surgeon, it was found that an open heart surgery on her could be fatal. Therefore, she was advised to undergo TAVR.
The patient is doing well now and will be discharged in two-three days, sources said. TAVR or Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) is a minimally invasive procedure that repairs the aortic valve without removing the old and damaged valve.
Instead, it wedges a replacement valve into the aortic valve’s place. Somewhat similar to a stent placed in a coronary artery, the TAVR approach delivers a fully collapsible replacement valve to the valve site through a catheter. Once the new valve is expanded, it pushes the old valve leaflets out of the way and the tissue in the replacement valve takes over the job of regulating blood flow.
This procedure is fairly new and was approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for people with symptomatic aortic stenos who are considered an intermediate or high risk patient for standard valve replacement surgery.
Usually valve replacement requires an open heart procedure with a sternotomy in which the chest is surgically separated (open) for the procedure. The TAVR or TAVI procedures can be done through very small puncture in the femoral arteries at the groin leaving all the chest bones in place.
A TAVR procedure provides beneficial treatment options to people who may not have been candidates for it a few years ago while also providing the added bonus of a faster recovery in most of the cases.
A patient’s experience with a TAVR procedure may be comparable to a balloon treatment or even an angiogram in terms of down time and recovery, and will likely require a shorter hospital stay say three-five days.