Chennai: Apollo Hospitals gave a new lease of life to an 82-year-old ex-Army Major General Dr. Sathyapalan who suffered severe 'aortic stenosis' due to surgical valve failure. The patient was shifted back to the CCU fully conscious and then back to the normal ward the very same evening. He got discharged on the second day post-surgery and cast his vote in the Lok Sabha elections.
Dr.Sai Satish, senior interventional cardiologist and his team replaced the damaged heart valve through trans catheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure. Aortic valve stenosis is a common disease that occurs usually in old age due to wear and tear of aortic valve as well as calcium deposits on the valve's flaps that narrow the aortic valve opening. The TAVI or TAVR procedure performed under local anaesthesia is a best option to treat such complicated cases. A thin, flexible tube housing the new collapsed valve is inserted most commonly through the femoral artery and delivered to the heart, replacing the old diseased valve.
Dr. Sai Sathish, said, "This was an extremely challenging case as the vessels in his leg were severely calcified and narrowed and no valve could be moved across them for replacement. Since the patient did not have any old records or information on the previously implanted surgical valve including its size etc, it was further challenging for us to replace the failed valve with a new one. His age and physical health again stood as a high risk making the procedure very demanding."
"The procedure however went extremely smooth, the narrowed leg vessel was first dilated with multiple balloons gently until the space was big enough to accommodate the valve system, the valve was then moved across this and placed safely, inside the old degenerated surgical valve in under 20 mins," the doctor explained.
