TAVI offers new hope
May 28, 2010
Revolutionary heart procedure a first for Alberta
Three weeks ago, Alex Shapka could barely breathe and felt exhausted all the time. His heart was struggling and his prognosis was grim.
Now, he says he feels better than he has felt in years, thanks to a revolutionary new heart procedure that is already saving lives in Alberta.
The Edmonton man was the first person to undergo a transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in Alberta, a procedure that offers new hope to patients unable to cope with open and invasive surgery.
On May 12, Shapka was operated on by a team of cardiac specialists at Edmonton’s Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, after being diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis.
The condition blocks the aortic valve of the heart and is deadly if left untreated.
Within two days of the operation, Shapka was home and feeling better. He says he hasn’t felt so good in a long, long time.
“I sure feel better than I did a few weeks ago, that’s for sure,” says Shapka. “It’s quite amazing, really. I honestly didn’t think I would feel this good, this quickly.”
Shapka is one of three patients who have already undergone the TAVI procedure in Edmonton, a procedure that until three weeks ago was not offered in Alberta.
In the past, Alberta heart patients deemed too risky for open heart surgery received no treatment or had to travel to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver for the TAVI procedure. Otherwise, they faced a grim prognosis of less than two years before their heart failed them.
TAVI involves inserting a manufactured valve the size of a quarter into the heart, replacing a patient’s failing aortic valve. The procedure is less intrusive than open heart surgery, with the valve delivered through a catheter compared to open surgery through the chest.
It gives new hope to patients for whom traditional open heart surgery is deemed too risky, due to pre-existing medical conditions.
“This procedure means we can help those patients, giving them quantity of life and, most importantly, quality of life,” says Dr. Steven Meyer, a cardiac surgeon with Alberta Health Services and the University of Alberta.
“We’re not just making people live longer but we’re making them feel better.”
A cardiac team is expected to begin TAVI procedures at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre within months.
Dr. Benjamin Tyrrell, an interventional cardiologist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, has seen first-hand the effects of aortic stenosis on patients unable to have open heart surgery.
“The TAVI program will provide a paradigm shift in how we treat high-risk patients,” Tyrrell says. “TAVI is an innovative procedure that provides an option to a patient who once had no options.”
The procedure can be done under general anesthesia and takes between two and four hours. Open heart surgery takes a minimum of three to five hours. Most patients can leave hospital after three or four days, half the time they would spend in hospital following open heart surgery.
