Aortic stenosis is a problem with the main heart valve coming out of your heart. I use
the analogy, it's kind of like a garden hose nozzle that when you tighten the garden hose
nozzle down, the water hisses out of the nozzle. This is what happens in patients who have
aortic stenosis. The valve becomes stiff, it won't open properly, and the blood literally
hisses out of your heart.
Aortic stenosis, which is the narrowing of the main valve out of the heart, quite commonly
presents itself as several different types of symptoms. The main presenting symptom is
fatigue. Patients have unexplained fatigue. They try to do anything, they can't get it
done. The reason they can't get it done is because no blood flow is getting to their
muscles and to their vital organs because the valve's plugged up. The other common symptoms
they'll have is shortness of breath with only minor activity. Some patients even have near
fainting spells, and other patients will develop chest discomfort not unlike angina pains that
patients with blocked up coronary arteries have.
We now are using what is called TAVR. TAVR stands for transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
In lay persons terms, what that means is we're now using minimally invasive procedures to
replace a heart valve as opposed to opening up your chest, putting you on the heart-lung
machine, and replacing a heart valve. TAVR stands for that procedure, where we use a
catheter to replace a heart valve.
Ohio State has been intimately involved in the research and the development of the TAVR
procedure. We have been involved with this program since about April of 2011. And we
are actually one of the few centers who have a large experience with both of the valves
that are approved by the FDA in the United States. Here at the Wexner Medical Center
at the Ross Heart Hospital, we have an unbelievable team of cardiovascular specialists, physicians
that I can assure you cannot be done readily and easily at any other place particularly
in central Ohio and, for that matter, in the state of Ohio. The array of talent that we
have at this institution has, for me, been a great delight to work with.
TAVR is a procedure that we do as a substitute to open heart surgery for valve replacement.
It is a valve that is basically mounted on a catheter that is delivered to the heart
through a blood vessel leading to the heart. It is much less invasive and basically entails
probably no more than a two or three inch incision max. The patients are literally sitting
up in bed two to three hours after the procedure where their heart valve has been replaced.
In patients who have the TAVR procedure, their recovery time as you might imagine because
it's minimally invasive is a lot quicker than if open heart valve surgery is done. As a
general rule, the patients that we do the TAVR procedure on are well into their eighties
and some patients are into their nineties. It is not at all uncommon and it is the rule
not the exception these patients are up walking the hallways the day after we do the procedure.
And it is not at all uncommon that these patients within three or four days leave the hospital
to either go home or go to perhaps a week or two of assisted living.