Some patients with aortic stenosis undergo open-heart surgery to replace a constricted heart valve in an attempt to stave off heart failure. But others, such as elderly adults, aren't candidates for this type of surgery. In 2011, the FDA approved a non-surgical alternative procedure called TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve replacement, but the new method, as discussed in the New York Times earlier this month, also carries certain risks.
In the current issue of Stanford Medicine magazine, my colleague Tracie White digs into the surgery-or-TAVR debate and follows the story of one aortic stenosis patient who was treated by the newer method. Maryann Casey, at 62, is younger and healthier than the average TAVR candidate, but she had faced an increased risk for complications during open-heart surgery because of radiation treatment for breast cancer decades ago.
From the magazine piece:
Casey was lucky. Her Stanford oncologist, Frank Stockdale, MD, PhD, the Maureen Lyles D’Amrogio Professor of Medicine Emeritus, was well-informed about treatment options for aortic stenosis, a calcification of the heart valve. This new nonsurgical approach to valve replacement involves placing an artificial heart valve, made of cow tissue supported by a stainless steel mesh frame, inside the damaged valve. Referred to as “transcatheter aortic valve replacement” or TAVR, the procedure is designed for patients with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis who have health conditions that make the preferred treatment, open-heart surgery, very high risk.
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On Oct. 16, 2012, Casey became one of the more than 120 patients that year at Stanford to undergo the TAVR procedure. The first catheter-based aortic valve transplant was in 2002 in France. It has been approved for use for the past six years in 40 other countries including most of Europe, with a total of 45,000 procedures conducted worldwide.
In the United States, institutions such as Stanford, the Cleveland Clinic, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania have been leaders in introducing the new procedure and determining its effectiveness through the clinical trials.
Careful patient selection is key to the successful use of the procedure, says [D. Craig Miller, MD, the Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery], and that sometimes means not recommending TAVR for a patient who is too old or too sick with other illnesses to benefit from the device.
“That’s a very sobering point,” says surgeon Miller. For patients who are too old or ill, undergoing the procedure may not increase their quality of life or life expectancy; Miller says that the boundary line between TAVR “utility and futility” is still being defined.
Previously: Mysteries of the heart: Stanford Medicine magazine answers cardiovascular questions, Ask Stanford Med: Answers to your questions about heart health and cardiovascular research and Major advancement for once inoperable ailing heart valves
