It's very important to recognize heart disease because it's the leading cause of death in
both men and women.
The goal of Rush's Structural Heart Disease Center is to treat patients who have valvular
heart disease as well as structural heart disease.
Over the years we have garnered huge experience in this area, and I think one of the successes is
that we've been able to assemble a team of experts, a team of experts in imaging, cardiac
surgeons, interventional cardiologists, anesthesiologists who work together.
We have a vast experience in making sure this is a safe and efficacious procedure.
Americans are living longer, and because of that we are seeing things that we never used
to see and one of them is an age-related degeneration of the aortic valve called
aortic stenosis.
Aortic stenosis is one of the common causes of heart disease, especially in the elderly.
The deposits of calcium, like hardening of the arteries is
this hardening of the valve, builds up over many years.
Eventually the narrowing becomes so severe that the heart is unable to pump enough blood
to the rest of the body,
leading to many symptoms such as extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and maybe even fainting.
Untreated, it can also lead to death.
We now have a less invasive and safer method to replace the stenotic aortic valve.
The way TAVR is done is that the wire is inserted in the femoral artery and it is threaded all
the way up to the heart.
Once that wire is in place, we can advance a balloon over it which dilates the narrowed
valve, and also then we can deliver another balloon which is carrying the new valve and
deploy the new valve in its place.
So in contrast to a surgical procedure where
they actually excise the old valve, we implant a new valve right over the old valve.
In fact, the old valve acts as an anchor for the new valve implant.
We meet weekly at a conference and we review each of our patients individually.
I felt a pressure in my chest.
It kind of wouldn't go away.
I was feeling for quite some time, shortness of breath. Said, "You know, we're going to go
to check this out."
Kathleen presented to our multidisciplinary heart valve clinic, where we have a full spectrum
of physicians and other health care providers
We felt, the multidisciplinary team felt that
a less-invasive TAVR-type procedure would allow her to ambulate and recover more easily
on a faster basis than would surgery.
You've had all your preliminary testing completed.
I think there's nothing else to do except to schedule the date for your procedure.
Let's do it.
During a TAVR procedure, it requires a team
of doctors.
We're working next to each other in the room.
We will have a cardiac anesthesiologist. We will have imaging people.
We will have the physicians that are doing the procedure.
Kathleen's prognosis is excellent.
She should have resumption of normal activities within three to four days after her procedure.
Kathleen, my name is Julie.
I'm one of the nurse practitioners.
I feel great.
I feel relieved and I feel grateful that I was able to do this procedure.
It is a miracle.
We all said that in the hospital.
It's just remarkable.
The recovery, outstanding.
Go for it if you get a chance.
Rush has been there from the very beginning with some of the finest specialists
in the country.
Cardiac surgeons, imaging people, even pediatric surgeons, pediatric interventionalists who
all work together as part of a team to ensure the most innovative, effective and safe care
of patients with these kinds of problems.