HUNTSVILLE — Huntsville Hospital’s Structural Heart team reached a milestone with its 1,000th Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement procedure. Only a handful of TAVR programs in Alabama and surrounding states have reached that mark.
TAVR is considered a minimally invasive procedure because a new heart valve can be inserted via catheter without removing the old, diseased valve or opening the patient’s chest.
TAVR 1,000 was performed Jan. 10 on an 89-year-old man from Owens Cross Roads. He had severe aortic stenosis, which is the narrowing of the aortic valve opening. The man is doing well and expected to resume an active life with his new heart valve, the hospital said.
Huntsville Hospital completed its first TAVR procedure in August 2014 and, since then, the program has evolved into a multi-disciplinary Structural Heart Team.
The TAVR team includes staff from the Cardiac Cath Lab, Cardiovascular OR, Cardiac Short Stay and HH Heart Center. Cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, valve program coordinators, advanced practice providers, anesthesiologists and echocardiography technologists are also part of the dynamic team.
In 2015, the hospital’s first full year with their TAVR team, there were 22 procedures. By comparison, last year, Huntsville Hospital set a record by completing 252 TAVRs.
The Structural Heart Team also performs mitral valve interventions, left atrial appendage closure and atrial/ventricular septal defect closures.
