With open heart surgery ruled out, city docs perform rare minimally invasive surgery

A complex non- surgical procedure Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) done on a patient who had undergone the Mitral Valve Replacement (MVR) procedure about 20 years ago was performed by city surgeons.

The surgery is being hailed as a huge success as the 66-year-old patient Mallikarjun Rao developed severe obstruction of the aortic valve.

His valve had narrowed critically and a valve replacement was considered mandatory for his survival.

Open heart surgery was ruled out as the patient had developed diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure) and severe aortic (valve) stenosis.

TAVR can be complicated in patients with previous MVR due to possible interference between the mechanical mitral and bio-prosthetic aortic valve made of animal tissue.

Since the new valve was inserted through blood vessels by making a small incision in the patient’s groin, there was no need for a conventional open-heart surgery.

Dr C Raghu, interventional cardiologist, Aster Prime Hospitals said, “It’s a game changer, We performed the first TAVR with previous MVR, in this part of the country, to relieve the 66-year-old gentleman from severe life-threatening problems caused by a diseased aortic valve.

The outcome is extremely promising.”

This is the first instance of Post MVR TAVR procedure performed in entire South India.

While with open heart surgery the risk factor is about 17%, with TAVI the risk factors is almost reduced to 4.5%" Dr. Raghu added.

Till date, there were approximately 100 TAVR procedures performed in the country out of which, only two post MVR TAVI were attempted.

The procedure was successfully performed by Sr. Interventional Cardiologist and Director, Aster Prime Hospitals Dr. C. Raghu and was supported by a team comprising Dr. Vengal Reddy cardiac surgeon; Dr Movva Srinivas, cardiologist, Dr Hamid Pasha, anaesthetist, Anjaneyulu, technologist and nursing staff headed by Rajeswari.