Aortic Valve Replacement

Dr. Denes Korpas with the Nebraska Heart Institute presented a program this noon at the Seward Family Medical Center. It followed a light lunch and was on Aortic Valve Stenosis & TAVR. That is an acronym for Transcatheter, Aortic, Valve and Replacement. Open heart surgery continues to be the first line of treatment for aortic stenosis but the TAVR procedure is rapidly becoming more acceptable as new procedures and equipment have become available. And, it is the procedure that Dr. Korpas and a team at the NHI are very familiar. This first picture shows an 

 unopened valve that has been threaded with a catheter to the Aorta. The next picture show the replacement valve expanded and put in place at the end of the aorta ( inside the heart) right over the top of the natural defective valve. The last picture shows the surface of the valve which opens and closes with the heart beat. It was interesting to hear Dr. Korpas tell of their doing a TAVR on a patient in record time of 35 minutes yesterday morning. The patient looked good this morning and was planning to go home this afternoon. For me, it was a very interesting presentation after having had an Electrocardiogram a couple years ago with the catheter inserted in my groin. And, a report of no treatment recommended at that time.