Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Program
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center is the first hospital in the Arizona to offer a new procedure that can replace an aortic heart valve without the invasive surgery that was previously required.
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) is a procedure for patients with severe aortic stenosis (narrowing of the aortic valve opening) who are not candidates for traditional open chest surgery or are high-risk operable candidates.
About the Procedure
TAVR is performed on a beating heart and does not require cardio-pulmonary bypass.
The TAVR procedure enables the placement of a balloon expandable aortic heart valve into the body via the catheter-based transfemoral delivery system. The TAVR procedure is designed to provide an alternative treatment to patients in whom the traditional open-heart surgery can not be performed.
The Edwards SAPIEN Valve is the first and only transcatheter aortic valve approved for use in the U.S., and the Cavanagh Heart Center at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center is one of a select group of hospitals in the country that are now performing the procedure on qualified patients.
Cavanagh Heart Center physicians were the first in Arizona to begin performing the TAVR procedure in April 2011, as one of a select group of clinical sites that participated in a U.S. clinical trial to evaluate the TAVR treatment for severe aortic stenosis.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the SAPIEN Transcatheter Heart Valve in November 2011 for the treatment of patients with severe aortic valve stenosis who have been determined by a cardiac surgeon to be inoperable for open aortic valve replacement,and in whom existing co-morbidities would not preclude the expected benefit from correction of the aortic stenosis.
To learn more about Cavanagh's TAVR program, Call Cavanagh Heart Center Concierge at (602) 839-2400.
