Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement TAVR (or TAVI) is Affordable at Mexico’s Clinics of the Heart

The Heart

The heart is a muscular organ that’s located in our chest between our lungs. The heart is designed to pump blood through our bodies. The right side of the heart pumps blood through the lungs, where the blood is oxygenized; the left side of the heart receives this blood and pumps it to the rest of the body.

The heart is divided into four main areas or chambers – two upper chambers called the left and right atrium, and two lower chambers called the left and right ventricle. There are four valves that control the flow of blood through the heart. They are called the aortic, mitral, pulmonary and tricuspid and have flaps of tissue called leaflets.

Each time a heart beats, it pumps blood through these valves by contracting its chambers. The valves open in one direction allowing blood to flow forward. In between beats, the heart’s chambers quickly relax, and the valves close preventing blood from flowing backward.

There are two common and severe conditions that can develop in heart valves due to genetics and/or with age:

Stenosis: When the valve is narrowed and does not completely open due to something like a build-up of calcium and high cholesterol.

Regurgitation: When the valve fails to fully close and allows blood to leak backward through the valve.

Either condition forces the heart to work harder, preventing it from pumping oxygenated blood to the body.

Aortic Stenosis

Aortic stenosis is a common condition found mostly among patients 75 years and older, although it’s not exclusive to that age group and occurs in younger patients whose aortic valve has only two leaflets instead of three.

Until recent years, regurgitation was treated by replacing the aortic valve during open-heart surgery, a procedure that requires the surgical team to expose the heart in the chest to replace the diseased valve. Good results notwithstanding, the procedure has been reserved for patients who are considered “low risk,” and is unavailable to “high risk” patients due to advanced valve disease, age and/or frail health since the recovery is slow and painful.

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI)

In 2002, in Rouen, France, a team of cardiologists developed a valve that could be implanted without invading the body through the chest. This procedure, known as TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) or TAVI (transcatheter aortic valve implantation), has allowed many patients for whom the risk of complications was considered too high to undergo the open-heart surgery option.

If a doctor determines that a patient is at high-risk or too sick for surgery, and if medicine is not helping the patient feel better, the less invasive TAVR procedure may be an alternative. This procedure allows a new valve to be inserted within the diseased heart. Mirroring the successes of the surgical aortic valve replacement, the TAVR has proven to consistently lengthen patients’ lives and improve their quality of life.

For this and other FDA-approved endovascular procedures offered by Clinics of the Heart, please e-mail us at info@clinicsoftheheart.com for appointments or additional information.