Services and Treatments
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)
Aortic Stenosis
| Credit: Edwards Lifesciences LLC, Irvine, CA. |
Severe aortic stenosis is a narrowing of the aortic valve opening that does not allow normal blood flow. It can be caused by a birth defect, rheumatic fever, radiation therapy, or it can be related to age.
In elderly patients, severe symptomatic aortic stenosis is often caused by the build-up of calcium (mineral deposits) on the aortic valve's leaflets (flaps of tissue that open and close to regulate the one-way flow of blood through the aortic valve). This build-up of calcium on the leaflets impairs the aortic valve's ability to fully open and close. As a result, the narrowed valve allows less oxygen-rich blood to flow from the lungs to the brain and the rest of the body which may cause symptoms like severe shortness of breath and extreme fatigue.
Treating Aortic Stenosis at Montefiore Medical Center
Montefiore Medical Center is a nationally recognized leader in the diagnosis and treatment of complex valve disease. Here, patients are cared for by a multidisciplinary team composed of highly skilled physicians and surgeons who offer the most advanced interventional and minimally invasive surgical treatments for complex conditions of the heart valves. These treatments include all forms of valve repair and replacement including aortic valve-sparing root replacement. If conventional valve repair or replacement is not an option for a patient, a recently approved procedure called TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement ) was approved by federal regulators last November and is now available at Montefiore.
During TAVR, a bioprosthetic valve is threaded through the femoral artery via a catheter and then into the heart. Once in position, balloon valvuloplasty is performed to deploy the replacement valve and its frame within the diseased native aortic valve. The procedure is performed in a hybrid catheterization lab. Montefiore Medical Center is among the first sites selected nationwide to launch a TAVR program in 2012.
Patients are actively being evaluated for inclusion in Montefiore's TAVR program. Additional information is available by calling 718-920-7000.
