Complex valve replacement procedure at city hospital

Coimbatore: Doctors at G Kuppusamy Naidu Memorial (GKNM) Hospital successfully performed a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure on a 73-year-old woman who was suffering from aortic valve stenosis (narrowing of the main valve of the heart).
In a press meet held on Wednesday, chairman of the cardiology department in the hospital Dr Rajpal K Abhichand said the woman was admitted to the hospital with severe breathlessness a month ago.
He said, “The patient could walk only for a few steps before becoming severely breathless. Her echo scan showed severe narrowing of the main valve of the heart (aortic stenosis). During surgery, the doctors found the entire aorta was calcific and brittle (porcelain aorta). The surgical procedure could not be done because in such a setting no suture would have held and it would have been impossible to stop the bleeding. The surgical procedure was abandoned.”
In this complex situation, Dr Rajpal said, they decided to do a valve replacement through the thigh of the patient, via a 3mm hole.
Through this access, he said the doctors first dilated the existing valve in the patient and made some space and subsequently an evolut valve was taken and deployed across the pre-existing valve pushing it to the side with the new valve fully opening.
This was done without opening the chest or stitching on the heart, he said and added that this technique was called TAVR in porcelain aorta. The patient is currently stable.