Until now, there haven't been a lot of options for someone whose aortic valve (the one that lets blood go from the heart to the rest of the body) has got gummed up by calcium deposits. Surgeons had a crack open the sternum to get at the heart, or make do with less effective drug treatments if the patients was too sick or too old for aggressive measures. Now surgeons can help without so much as nicking a patients chest - by snaking a catheter up through the groin. (The technique is know as transcatheter aortic valve implantation, or TAVI.) The technique isn't just easier for these fragile patients; in he first studies, the incision - free approach helped them live longer than people getting standard treatments.
TTHE TECHNIQUE IS KNOW AS TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE IMPLANTATION, OR TAVI
Doctors are making similar progress in using catheters to replace other kinds of heart valves - the late actress Elizabeth Taylor has her mitral valve repaired, then tweeted about it! - and cardiologists say that way they treat -0 valve disease may never be the same
TTHE TECHNIQUE IS KNOW AS TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE IMPLANTATION, OR TAVI
Doctors are making similar progress in using catheters to replace other kinds of heart valves - the late actress Elizabeth Taylor has her mitral valve repaired, then tweeted about it! - and cardiologists say that way they treat -0 valve disease may never be the same
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