New Valve Replacement Procedure Offers Hope for Those Who Cannot Have
Open-Heart Surgery
The UCH Cardiac & Vascular Center is the first in Colorado to offer transcatheter aortic
valve replacement for patients who are too high risk for traditional open-heart surgery.
Aurora, Colo. (March 19, 2012) – The University of Colorado Hospital (UCH)
Cardiac & Vascular Center is among only a handful of locations in the U.S. offering an
innovative procedure to replace narrowed or diseased aortic heart valves non-surgically
using a catheter. The first two transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures
(TAVR) performed in Colorado were done at the University of Colorado Hospital just last
week on March 13, 2012.
Traditional valve replacement surgery involves opening the patient’s chest and placing
their heart on a bypass machine during the valve replacement, but many patients are
not healthy or strong enough for this. Now, those patients have another option.
Cardiac interventional specialists at the UCH Cardiac & Vascular Center are able to
feed a catheter through a patient’s artery in the groin to their heart and replace the
aortic valve from the inside, eliminating the need for an invasive open-heart surgery.
“This procedure is for patients with very advanced aortic valve disease,” says Dr. John
Messenger, director of the Catheterization Laboratory. “We’re able to extend life
expectancy and improve quality of life for patients who have no other option.”
This innovative technology involves a bovine heart valve stitched inside a stainless steel
scaffold or stent. The Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve is crimped down onto
a catheter which is then fed up through a patient’s femoral artery to the heart. A tiny
balloon temporarily inflates inside the stent, setting it in place and replacing the
malfunctioning valve.
“This procedure is possible in our hybrid cath lab,” says Dr. Joe Cleveland, a
cardiothoracic surgeon participating in the procedure. “We convene a team of cardiac
surgeons, cardiac imaging specialists, interventional cardiologists and our cardiac
anesthesiologist to orchestrate a very precise procedure in our hybrid procedure room.
The University of Colorado Hospital has some of the world’s best physicians working
collaboratively to perform this life-saving procedure.”
The operation itself is much easier on patients than traditional surgery and recovery
time is greatly diminished, making the transcatheter valve replacement possible for
patients who are too sick for traditional surgery.
“Our patients wake up after the procedure and immediately have a much healthier
heart, and they’re usually back at home in about a week,” said Dr. John Carroll, director
of Interventional Cardiology.
“About 250,000 patients in the U.S. suffer from severe aortic stenosis,” said Dr. Peter
Buttrick, chairman of Cardiology. “We’re proud to be the first in Colorado to offer this,
and we believe the TAVR can help a large number of patients across the Rocky
Mountain Region.”
Patients who are interested in finding out if they’re a candidate for TAVR can contact
the Cardiac & Vascular Center at 720-848-5300. An animation of the TAVR procedure
is available at the UCH Valve Clinic website.
About University of Colorado Hospital
University of Colorado Hospital is the Rocky Mountain region's leading academic
medical center. It is recognized as the highest-performing academic hospital in the
United States for delivering quality health care by the University HealthSystem
Consortium, and is ranked as the best hospital in the Denver metro area and one of the
best in the country by U.S. News & World Report. UCH is best known as an innovator in
patient care and often as one of the first hospitals to bring new medicine to the patients’
bedside. The hospital’s physicians are affiliated with the University of Colorado School
of Medicine, part of the University of Colorado system. Based on the expansive
Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO, the hospital is where patient care, research
and education converge to establish the future of health care delivery. For additional
information, please visit the University of Colorado Hospital media page.
Contact: Jacque Montgomery; jacque.montgomery@ucdenver.edu 303-928-9093
*note, doctors are available for comment and patients should be available on Tuesday