Heart and Vascular Center reaches milestone with minimally invasive TAVR procedure
The UI Heart and Vascular Center has a history of excellence in minimally invasive procedures and that tradition continues with the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure.
TAVR is a treatment for aortic stenosis – the narrowing of the aortic valve causing an obstruction of blood flow to the heart. What was once a little-used procedure saved for only the most high-risk patients has become a common alternative to standard open-heart surgery.
“The first years we were only doing 30 to 40 of these TAVR procedures each year,” says Phillip Horwitz, MD, medical director of the Structural Heart Disease Program at UI Heart and Vascular Center. “Now we are replacing more than 150 valves each year.”
The UI Heart and Vascular Center performed its 500th TAVR procedure in January.
TAVR involves advancing an artificial heart valve on a catheter to the heart through a small incision. Once the valve has been positioned across the aortic valve, the valve is deployed into place under the guidance of X-ray and heart ultrasound.
The procedure was initially reserved only for those patients who posed a high risk for having a standard surgery, but now it serves as an alternative to traditional open-heart surgery for many patients with aortic stenosis.
“Now, more patients can qualify for the procedure, we can see patients with a lower risk for surgery,” says Horwitz.
That’s good news for patients like Myron Kinzler, a Williamsburg man who needed a valve replacement but did not want open-heart surgery.
Horwitz says the UI Heart and Vascular team works to get patients back on their feet faster, as well. Rather than using general anesthesia, most patients receive “conscious sedation,” so they are relaxed but awake. This type of anesthesia leads to faster recovery and the patient is able to get up and move sooner, Horwitz says, which can often result in a shorter hospital stay.
The UI Heart and Vascular Center TAVR program is a multi-specialty program involving cardiac surgeons, interventional and imaging cardiologists, cardiac anesthesiologists and other medical disciplines. “The advantage to coming to the University of Iowa is that we have the most advanced surgery and interventional cardiology program in the state,” Horwitz says. “Patients get access to all of the expertise that is available at the University of Iowa, not just cardiovascular care but totality of care. When you come here, you know that whatever conditions you may have, they can be managed here.”