CBH first hospital in Central Kentucky to perform transcatheter aortic valve replacement

CBH is the first hospital in Central Kentucky to perform the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure. Four patients with diseased aortic heart valves who were deemed too sick to withstand conventional open-heart surgery to replace their valves have undergone this new heart valve replacement procedure at Central Baptist Hospital.

During the procedures, a collapsible artificial valve was deployed through a catheter, a long tube that was advanced through an artery in the groin up to the heart. When the artificial valve was in place at the site of the patient's diseased valve, a balloon at the end of the catheter was inflated, opening the new valve, which started working immediately.

At Central Baptist, a team of cardiothoracic surgeons, interventional cardiologists and anesthesiologists worked together in each procedure to implant the new valve, known as the Edwards SAPIEN valve developed by Edwards Lifesciences.

Members of Central Baptist's TAVR team include cardiothoracic surgeons Dr. Mo Imam and Dr. Tony Rogers, interventional cardiologists Dr. Paula Hollingsworth and Dr. Azhar Aslam, and anesthesiologists Dr. Thomas Young and Dr. Alan Carter.

As the U.S. population ages, an increasing number of patients will develop aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the heart's aortic valve caused by calcium deposits, which impedes blood flow.

"It just crept up on me...I thought it was old age, but my doctor told me I had a big problem," said Geraldine Combs, a TAVR patient from Beattyville, Ky.  Many patients do not have an option for treatment of aortic stenosis because they have several health issues that place them at high risk for conventional open-heart surgery.

Although minimally invasive surgical procedures have been used on the aortic valve in the past, these operations relied on incisions in the chest wall and required cardiopulmonary bypass. The TAVR procedure allows doctors for the first time to replace the aortic valve without either of these components of conventional surgery.

TAVR is the latest in innovative cardiac procedures being performed at Central Baptist. Such procedures help patients to return to their normal routine with a much shorter recovery time. In a post procedure visit, Wilgen Hale, from Science Hill, Ky. said, "You don't know what it means to just be able to do what you want to do again."