Chennai: In India, there are approximately 15 lakh severe aortic patients, of whom 4.5 lakh are inoperable and patients with aortic stenosis have 50 percent risk of mortality over two years without treatment. “The most common cause of aortic stenosis has been found to be old age, while the best form of treatment for the same so far has been open-heart surgery. However, in Western countries, a paradigm shift in heart valve replacement has been seen, which is yet to pick up in India,” said Dr AB Gopalamurugan, India’s leading interventional cardiologist, SIMS Hospital, at India Valve’s national forum that was held in the city on Friday.
“The Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) has come as a boon for patients with aortic stenosis. Carrying out open surgeries in elderly patients has found to be highly difficult, resulting in reducing the quality of life of the patients,” said Dr George, a cardiologist from the city. Patients with severe aortic stenosis tend to develop symptoms that can restrict normal day-to-day activities such as walking short distances and climbing stairs, and an open surgery would not benefit them much in terms of improving their quality of living.
“The reason for such few cases of TAVR being seen is mainly due to the lack of awareness on the same. Until recently, a diseased valve could only be replaced by putting a patient on a heart-lung bypass machine, cutting open the chest and then stitching up the new valve inside the heart,” said Dr Praveen Chandra, Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon. “With the availability of the latest cutting-edge TAVR technology, we are now able to extend lives for all the elderly patients,” he added.
