A new minimally invasive procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) might just make valve replacement, open-heart surgery, and the use of a heart-lung machine a thing of the past.
Considered a minimally invasive procedure, TAVR allows the replacement of a diseased aortic valve without the need to open a patient’s chest. “We insert a tiny catheter into an artery in the groin,” Ramin Beygui, MD, Medical Director of the Washington Hospital/UCSF Cardiac Services program at Washington Hospital explained. “A fully collapsible replacement valve is delivered through the catheter to the valve site. Once the new valve is expanded, the replacement valve takes over.”
