kill people suddenly when it becomes severe. The aortic valve is the fourth
and final valve that the blood crosses on its course through the heart. When the
left ventricle squeezes the blood comes out through a healthy sized orifice like
this and the leaflets open and close. When you get these calcium deposits on
the aortic valve, it restricts the excursion and sometimes leaflets are
even frozen and one barely opens.
So, what is ordinarily a nice opening for
the blood to be ejected from the heart becomes a slit. The only treatment,
traditionally, has been open-heart surgery but, this evolving, wonderful new
technology, is ingenious. Transcatheter aortic valve
replacement (TAVR) uses the most common portal of access through the femoral artery in
the groin. Guide wires are advanced up the aorta.
It has allowed us to offer
treatment to patients that were previously thought to be too high-risk..
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