Kozhikode, October 5, 2017: A Symposium was organised at Aster MIMS on Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), a totally nonsurgical innovative method to replace a damaged heart valve. The symposium was done with 3 live TAVI cases. The visuals from the Cath lab were displayed at the Auditorium with help of modern AV equipments. In conventional open-heart surgery, the chest cavity needs to be opened by cutting through the sternum, and put the patient on a bypass machine to allow the surgeon to operate on the heart. TAVI is a totally nonsurgical technique done through a small hole in the leg artery.
The procedure was done in the leadership of Dr. Shafeeq Mattummal, Senior Consultant Cardiologist, Aster MIMS Kozhikode along with Dr Anil Saleem, Senior Consultant Cardiologist, Aster MIMS and Dr Lars Sondergaard, Professor of Cardiology, Copenhagen University, Denmark. Dr Lars Sondergaard and Dr Salaman Salahuddin discussed various topics in the seminar.The seminar was attended by more than 50 cardiologists from different parts of the state.
Dr. Shafeeq Mattummal said, “Advances in cardiovascular surgery have led to the advent of a transformative technology called TAVI or Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation. TAVI makes it possible to operate on patients who were previously deemed unsuitable or too high risk for surgery.”
He explained, “In TAVI, a thin flexible tube is inserted. The native, narrow valve is opened using a balloon trough this tube. Then the miniaturized valve is inserted through the same catheter and opened at the site of old valve. The entire procedure took about an hour as compared to 5-6 hours required for an open heart surgery. It is a non invasive non-surgical procedure in the sense that inner organs are accessed via needle-puncture of the skin, rather than by using a scalpel. It is already widely popular and standard treatment in developed countries like USA, Europe, Australia, Japan etc”.
Dr. Rahul Menon, CEO, Aster MIMS said, “TAVI is all set to change the face of cardiac care in India. Only a few hospitals in India are now doing this procedure. We are extremely happy that we are able to bring this technological advancement to the patients as well as to the cardiologists through this symposium”.
