CHICAGO, Aug. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwestern
Medicine's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is celebrating the
success of its transcatheter valve program, a pioneering technology
that replaces or repairs leaky heart valves without open-heart
surgery. On August 25, 2016, more
than 50 former transcatheter valve replacement patients and their
family members celebrated the life-saving procedure that has
extended both their lives and their ability to enjoy them.
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The Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute hit the milestone of being
the first hospital in Illinois to
perform the 500th TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve
replacement, since the program's inception in 2008. Charles J.
Davidson, MD, performed the 500th procedure on
July 23, 2016.
Dr. Davidson, chief of clinical cardiology at Northwestern
Memorial Hospital, was the pioneer of TAVR at Northwestern and also performed the health system's
first TAVR.
"TAVR and our other transcatheter valve procedures offer
patients — most who have no other option — a second
chance at life," said Dr. Davidson, who is also a professor of
medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
"We have been privileged to be a leader in one of one of the
greatest innovations in the history of cardiovascular care and
treatment. Personally, it has been a joy and honor to watch these
significantly ill patients thrive after their procedures."
Traditional heart valve repair or replacement requires
open-heart surgery, where surgeons make an incision down the center
of a patient's sternum to directly reach the heart. Patients are
placed on a heart-lung bypass machine during surgery, and recovery
time typically involves several days in the hospital.
While open-heart surgery is still the best option for many
patients, Northwestern Medicine physicians have been at the
forefront nationally of research into replacing valves through a
transcatheter approach. With that, physicians insert a catheter, or
tube, into the patients' femoral artery in the groin or between the
patient's ribs. The valve, which is mounted on a stent, is guided
with the help of x-ray imaging across the diseased valve. A balloon
is inflated and the stent with the new valve attached is implanted,
replacing the existing valve. In-hospital recovery time is
typically around 2-3 days.
Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute physicians have utilized
transcatheter aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve replacement and
repair technologies in extreme risk, high-risk, moderate-risk and
low-risk patients through a series of clinical trials. This work
with transcatheter valve therapies has made Northwestern Memorial
Hospital a national destination for heart care. U.S. News
& World Report recently ranked Northwestern Memorial's
cardiology and heart surgery program sixth in the country. The
program is consistently ranked best in Chicago, Illinois and the surrounding
states.
"Our transcatheter program represents the best of the Bluhm
Cardiovascular Institute — positive clinical outcomes for our
patients combined with research that is advancing the field of
cardiovascular care," said Patrick M. McCarthy, MD, executive
director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute and chief of the
division of cardiac surgery at Northwestern. "We are pleased to celebrate this
milestone and excited to continue our work on advancing
transcatheter research through our clinical trials unit."
To learn more about TAVR or other transcatheter valve options at
Northwestern Medicine, visit heart.nm.org or call (312)
NM-HEART.
For more information about Northwestern Medicine, visit
news.nm.org/about-northwestern-medicine.html.
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SOURCE Northwestern Medicine