TAVR offers lower risks of disabling strokes and death

• The operation is a daring one: to replace a failing heart valve, cardiologists insert a mechanical replacement through a patient’s groin and thread it all the way to the heart, manoeuvring it into the site of the old valve.
• The procedure, called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), has been reserved mostly for patients so old and sick they might not survive open-heart surgery.
• Now, two large clinical trials show that TAVR is just as useful in younger and healthier patients.
• It might even be better, offering lower risks of disabling strokes and death, compared to open-heart surgery.
• Cardiologists say it will likely change the standard of care for most patients with failing aortic valves.
• With TAVR, the only incision is a small hole in the groin where the catheter is inserted.
• Most patients are sedated, but awake through the procedure, and recovery takes just days, not months, as is often the case following the usual surgery.
• The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the procedure for lower-risk patients.

 The Hindu