This is true and cardiac vision has recently joined the TAVR team at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville. Aortic stenosis is a progressive and life-threatening.  Once symptoms appear, untreated patients have a poor prognosis.  Aortic valve disease is responsible for more than 25,000 deaths yearly. It affects up to 7% of the population over the age of 65.2  After the onset of symptoms, patients with severe aortic stenosis have a survival rate as low as 50% at 2 years and 20% at 5 years without aortic valve replacement.

TAVR stands for  transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) which is an option for patients that have severe symptomatic aortic stenosis and are at high risk for surgical valve replacement or declared technically inoperable by the cardio-thoracic surgeons. It is a multidisciplinary team approach that evaluates each patient individually to assess the benefits and risks for the procedure.  The goal is to improve patients symptoms and functional capacity as well as  quality of life.  The first case was done in Europe in 2002 and approved in the US in 2011. Some experts believe that TAVR may even replace aortic valve surgery in the near future.

Here are some statistics that I would like to share with you regarding TAVR that came from the PARTNER trial:

-At one year, mortality decreased with TAVR compared to medical therapy and balloon aortic valvotomy and at two years, functional capacity increased with TAVR. Repeat hospitalization was reduced.

-Mortality rates in the TAVR and surgical group were similar at 30 days, one year, and two years.