Doctors at Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad have performed five Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in a single day on January 14 for the first time in the country.

Announcing this at a press conference on January 21, President of Apollo Hospitals Division Dr Hari Prasad said that the Apollo has always forefront in the country while introducing the latest technology in the health care sector. TAVR is an advanced sutureless procedure performed to replace a damaged aortic valve and is a boon for patients with high surgical risk.

As part of the program the Cardiologists at the Hospital, led by Dr A Sreenivas Kumar, Sr Consultant Cardiologist & Director, Cardiology and Clinical Research, Apollo Hyderabad created history by treating five critically ill patients suffering from valve disease with TAVR on a single day, a feat performed for the first time in the country, Dr Hari Prasad said.

Dr Sreenivas Kumar said that aortic valve replacement has been conventionally done by performing an Open Heart surgery, which involves a high risk for the patient, besides a prolonged bed rest for recovery. The novel procedure, TAVR is patient friendly with excellent results as it enables the patient to recover within two days.

Being a minimally invasive procedure, it is done through a small aperture in the groin, with administering of anaesthesia for a limited period. Besides benefiting the regular patients, this procedure is a big boon for those in advanced age, those with a high risk of surgery and associated complications like lung or kidney disease.

The five patients treated with TAVR were a 73-year old man with severe Aortic Valve Stenosis with moderate LV dysfunction, a 70-year old from Hyderabad with Severe Aortic Stenosis with Presncopo with LV dysfunction, another 73-year old from Hyderabad suffering from severe Aortic Stenosis with Giddinum, a 70-year old man from Hyderabad with severe Aortic Stenosis of bioprosthetic valve with LV dysfunction, who had a post-surgical Aortic valve replacement in 2009, and a 66-year old from Khammam with Severe Aortic Stenosis, Severe LV dysfunction, Moderate MR and Post PTCA in 2011.

All the patients were discharged on the 2nd day of the procedure, Dr Kumar Added. The cost of the surgery was around Rs. 20 lakh (imported valve) and Rs. 15 lakh (Indian valve) respectively, Dr Kumar said and added that the success rate is 95-100 per cent. It depends on expertise of the hospital.