Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement
Emory is one of a handful of sites 20 sites nationwide, and most comprehensive in the Southeast, to study transcatheter aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis. Aortic stenosis affects close to 150,000 Americans each year. The transcatheter procedure is easier on patients, typically offers shorter recovery times than traditional surgery and provides doctors with a new option to treat patients who are too ill or frail to endure open heart surgery. A combined group of Emory cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons have been performing transcatheter aortic valve replacements since 2007 as part of the clinical study comparing this procedure with traditional, open-heart surgery.
Patient Advantages:
- Results from the early stages of the trial are promising showing a trend toward lower mortality rate for patients who underwent a TAVR procedure versus patients who continued on traditional treatment.
- Patients who before had few options for treatment now can undergo this minimally invasive procedure to treat their heart condition.
- It is anticipated that the transcatheter valve will receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in late 2011.
- Physicians at Emory Heart & Vascular Center have performed over 125 procedures since 2007 when the trial opened.
- Patients can get the procedure at both Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital Midtown.
