TAVR: A life saving technique for treating aortic valve stenosis.
TAVR, is a procedure used in treating aortic valve stenosis, it involves threading a long, thin, flexible tube, called a catheter, through the femoral artery in the leg to the heart.
This procedure repairs the valve without removing the old one. Aortic valve stenosis is a fatal narrowing of the valve controlling blood leaving the heart to the rest of the body.
This narrowing reduces blood flow to vital organs, resulting in shortness of breath, chest pain, blackouts, and heart failure.
For elderly patients, TAVR gives an effective and less invasive alternative to open heart surgery.
However, some of these patients develop coronary artery obstruction during the TAVR procedure.
BASILICA was developed by Jaffar M. Khan, M.D., at the National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of NIH, to increase the safety of TAVR for this subset of patients.
Subscribe now to remove this ad, read unlimited articles, bookmark your favorite post and soo much more
“These patients are either not eligible for conventional TAVR, or they are at high risk for it,” said Robert J. Lederman, M.D., the senior investigator in NHLBI’s Division of Intramural Research who led the study with Khan.
Lederman explained that during TAVR, the surgeon places a catheter inside the heart and uses a balloon to open a new valve inside the aortic valve.
Make more money selling and advertising your products and services for free on Ominy market. Click here to start selling now
However, in some patients whose hearts have unusual structures, the large leaflets block the flow of blood to the coronary arteries as the new valve’s scaffolding opens.
BASILICA offers a solution to the problem of coronary obstruction during TAVR. The cardiologist weaves an electrified wire the size of a sewing thread through a catheter and uses it to split the original leaflet in two so that it won’t be able to block the coronary artery once it has been pushed aside by the transcatheter heart valve.
Subscribe now to remove this ad, read unlimited articles, bookmark your favorite post and soo much more
In the current study, the researchers report the success of the BASILICA procedure in seven gravely ill patients who qualified for compassionate use of the technique then untested in humans, because no other care options were available.
“All patients had a successful TAVR with no coronary obstruction, stroke or any major complication,” said Lederman. “They were doing well as they reached the 30-day-mark after the procedure.”
The researchers are hoping that the technique will eventually help reduce the number of deaths from heart valve disease.
What a revolutionary procedure. I am pleased that my 90 year old mother will be able to extend her life thanks to this awesome invention.
Yeah..
Thanks to the inventors who have spent much time investing into human life