Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) or Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a minimally invasive heart valve replacement procedure that repairs the narrowed aortic valve without a major surgery.

• General or local anaesthesia is given based on the patient’s condition.
• A catheter (small tube) with a balloon at its tip is inserted into an artery usually through the groin.
• The catheter is passed through the blood vessels guided by fluoroscopy (X-rays) into your heart and positioned within the narrowed aortic valve.
• Then the balloon is gently inflated to make room for the new tissue valve.
• The new valve is now inserted through the groin blood vessel and gently taken to the heart and placed at the narrowed aortic valve.
• New valve expands either by itself or is expanded using the balloon, depending on the type of valve which is used.
• The balloon is deflated and then the catheter is removed.
• The new valve gets seated within the old damaged valve and is tightly held by the calcium which is usually present over the aortic valve.
• After confirmation of valve function, groin blood vessels closed using a percutaneous suture.

For patients who have been deemed intermediate or high risk for traditional open-heart surgery, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) would be the best treatment option. Patients with low risk for surgery also can be offered this therapy particularly when they have other comorbid conditions. TAVR can be ideal for patients with a prior history of stroke, chest radiation, open heart surgery, COPD, frailty, renal insufficiency, advanced age and other conditions.

Dr G.Sengottuvelu is one of the earliest to start structural program in India and performed the first TAVR procedure in 2015 at Apollo hospitals and since then have completed over 50 successful TAVR procedures.

This is the first centre in South India approved to perform all the best in class TAVR systems in the world – the Medtronic self-expanding Core and Evolut R system and the Edwards balloon expandable Sapien 3 system. Recently have also started Evolut PRO and the Indian Myval system with good results. The team consisting of interventional cardiologists, imaging specialists, heart surgeons and cardiac anesthesiologists is headed by Dr Sengottuvelu is highly experienced in all the valve types and perform all types of complex cases.

Dr Sengottuvelu had his advanced TAVR training in Switzerland, France and USA and is presently the director of heart valve foundation of India and one of the course directors of India valves, which is the largest scientific meeting on catheter based valve therapies in the region. He is highly experienced structural interventionist and has the largest scientific publications on TAVR in India with several publications in peer reviewed journals.