New hope for heart patients with alternative to open-heart surgery

THERE is now an alternative to open heart surgery available for patients who are considered to be a high risk for surgery.

Dr Marinos Soteriou, Head of the American Heart Institute (AHI) said normally when a patient’s aortic valve is unhealthy he would be required to replace it with open heart surgery.

However there are some patients for whom surgery may carry a high-risk so doctors are often unwilling to perform the procedure, he said.

Those patients now may have the option to receive an alternative treatment called TAVI (Transcatheter aortic valve implantation).

Soteriou said: “TAVI is an alternative to open heart surgery and is considered as a minimally invasive approach.  A delivery catheter is basically inserted through a small incision at the top of the leg or in the chest and once in the heart the valve is positioned and deployed across the patient’s aortic valve. There is no need for full surgery”

Soteriou was keen to stress however that the surgery is not recommended as an alternative to open heart surgery but instead as an option for those patients where surgery carries a high risk level.

“The procedure is still in its early development stages; it is being used in the European Union but has not been given FDA approval yet in the US,” he said.

Soteriou also warned that there were medical risks associated with the procedure and that it was extremely expensive to execute as the specialised valves were not easily available. He also warned that the long-term effects and longevity of the valve were yet to be fully understood or documented.

However the operation could serve as a beacon of light to some who are unable to undergo surgery. Soteriou said the procedure would increase the life expectancy of those who are unable to have the operation.

“I have performed very few so far and we only introduced the procedure in the institute about a month ago. However I am very hopeful that in time as the procedure evolves it will be a very viable and promising solution for some patients,” he said.

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