This year we celebrate 20 years since the first in-man transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) procedure was performed in Rouen, France, by Dr Alain Cribier and colleagues. Now more than 1.5 million TAVI procedures have been performed worldwide.
The Heart HQ team, led by Dr Peter Larsen and Dr Stuart Butterly, have now performed more than 300 TAVI procedures. All of our patients receive education and support pre- and post-procedure in our Structural Heart Valve Clinic with our Nurse Practitioner, Silvia Gres. Together our heart team are proud to offer our local Sunshine Coast patients access to this specialised procedure, used to treat patients with aortic stenosis (AS).
Aortic stenosis is a severe narrowing of the aortic valve. It is the most prevalent valvular heart disease. With an ageing population, the number of patients with AS is increasing each year. Patients with AS have severe restrictions in their quality of life, and if left untreated, death occurs in 80% of cases within 3 years after the onset of symptoms.
TAVI is essentially a ‘key-hole’ procedure. It is a way of replacing your existing valve with an artificial tissue valve. A successful procedure will relieve you of symptoms of aortic stenosis, improving the quality of your life and potentially increase your life expectancy.
You can read more about TAVI here.
Patient story: Daphne Keough
We were recently featured on WIN News nationally sharing a fabulous story of one of our TAVI patients, Daphne Keough. Daphne, a keen dancer, is one of 300 people who have been treated by our team of Structural Heart Specialists for aortic stenosis with TAVI.
“Since having my surgery I feel amazing – it has truly been life changing and what’s even better was being able to have the procedure done here on the Sunshine Coast,” Ms Keough said.
Dr Butterly said while AS is one of the most common and most serious heart problems, what many people don’t realise is it’s one of the easiest to treat.
You can watch the WIN News story here.