Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery in Louisville, Kentucky

Baptist Health Louisville: Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery

Aortic valve replacement is a catheter-based, minimally invasive procedure that can help treat aortic valve stenosis. Learn more about this heart procedure from Baptist Health.

Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery in Louisville, Kentucky HealthTalks Transcript

Christopher Semder, MD:
Aortic valve stenosis is a problem where the aortic valve doesn’t open appropriately and effectively strangles the heart.

Sabastian Pagni, MD:
TAVR is a catheter-based procedure where we identify adequate access in the patient in the form of a peripheral artery or in the tip of the heart. We are able to place the valve inside the area of the blockage and then gradually expand the valve over the balloon and leave it in place.

Christopher Semder, MD:
The benefits of aortic valve replacement are that it’s a life-changing and lifesaving procedure. Patients are evaluated by our team. They tend to undergo a transthoracic echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart to evaluate their aortic valve. If they’re felt to be appropriate for this procedure, they are then presented in a weekly conference where we have multiple members from multiple different specialties weighing in on their options. We would choose a transcatheter aortic valve replacement for a patient due to advanced age, due to frailty, or for a patient who we think would just do much better with a minimally invasive procedure versus an open aortic valve replacement. That is a procedure where they tend to recover extremely quickly and get out of the hospital on average here at Baptist Health Louisville in less than two days.