60-year-old's life saved through new minimally invasive procedure

A 60-year-old man diagnosed with aortic bio-prosthesis degeneration with severe stenosis -- condition in which calcium gets deposited on the aortic valve in the heart -- was successfully operated using a new minimally invasive procedure called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR).

A resident of Solapur, Kishore Rathi's condition was not serious. Due to his medical condition calcium got deposited on the aortic valve in the heart and could cause narrowing at the opening of the aortic valve.

According to medical sciences, in such conditions if medical intervention is delayed the narrowing can become severe enough to reduce blood flow through the aortic valve, a condition called aortic valve stenosis. Such conditions lead to progressive deterioration of the heart function and later death.

After examining the condition of Rathi, a team of doctors at the city-based Hinduja hospital was constituted under the leadership of Cardiac surgeon Kaushal Pandey.

According to the doctors, Rathi's treatment was a little complicated as his earlier surgery was performed using a tissue valve in the procedure.

"Tissue valve has a limited life span and had to be replaced again. The valve needed to be replaced without putting patient's health in danger and keeping his age in mind hence a second surgery was ruled out," said Pandey.

Therefore, the patient's kin were told about TAVR and it's benefits over other procedures. After convincing the kin, the TAVR was performed.

Doctors say that TAVR procedure replaces a diseased aortic heart valve through a minimally invasive procedure, without open-heart surgery and without surgical removal of the diseased valve.

The device is typically inserted through an artery in the leg and then guided through the arteries into the heart. Once in place, the device expands and takes over the original valve's function to enable oxygen-rich blood to flow efficiently out of the heart.

After the TAVR procedure, the patient's condition progressively improved over the next 24 hours and he was discharged from the hospital on the next day.

"TAVR will change the way we treat Aortic Valve Stenosis. In a few years this newer and relatively latest procedure will replace open heart surgery for treating diseased valves in patients who are at high or extreme risk for surgery," said Pandey.

He added that patients who undergo a minimally invasive TAVR procedure may experience less down time, faster recovery and often, a shorter hospital stay (3-5 days on average) than patients undergoing open heart surgery.

--IANS

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