Apollo Cardiologists perform a pioneering cardiac procedure ‘Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation’ on an 80 year old man Procedure was done for the first time in this part of the country

Hyderabad, April 21st, 2016: A pioneering cardiac procedure, Percutaneous Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) was performed on an eighty year old man with critical calcific Aortic Stenosis by Dr. P. C. Rath and team of Dr. Manoj Agarwal, Dr. B. Dikshit and Dr. Sundar on April 15, 2016 at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. This procedure is being performed for the first time in this part of the country including the two Telugu states, Eastern and Central India.

Narrowing of the aortic valve of the heart is called Aortic stenosis. Such blockage in the valve leads to gradual petering of blood flow and consequently an increased effort from the heart is required to pump blood. This condition can lead to heart failure. In normal circumstances an open heart surgery is performed on such patients to replace the valve. However in the case of this patient due to his advanced age and renal failure, an open Heart Surgery was considered to be a high risk and therefore the minimally invasive TAVI was preferred.

TAVI for this patient was performed in the cathlab from the groin region like in angioplasty. After the patient was administered short general anesthesia, the valve was put to the heart through the femoral artery and was implanted accurately under the guidance of fluoroscopy and Trans Esophaegeal ECHO. The valve implanted was the latest second generation valve from Medtronic USA called Evolute – R. The duration of the procedure was approximately one and half hours. Immediately after the procedure the patient was extubated he was conscious and was shifted to ICU. He was monitored in the ICU for two days, three more days in the ward and is being discharged today.

TAVI is being routinely performed in Europe and lately in USA for patients who are at high risk for Open Heart Surgery. The procedure got FDA approval in 2015 and since then is being routinely performed in USA. In India the procedure is not yet approved by DCGI and needs permission on case to case basis and then the device is imported. Very few cases have been performed in India, and the ones performed were mostly in Delhi and Bangalore. Though the device is expensive, the procedure is a boon for such patients to be able to save their lives and continue to live through a relatively safe non-surgical procedure. Now we can offer this life saving procedure to many of our sick patients with calcified Aortic stenosis, says Dr Rath.