Get the Lifesaving TAVR Procedure without the Travel

TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement), a catheter-based nonsurgical valve replacement procedure done via the groin, has been the greatest advance in the field of cardiac therapy since the advent of stents — and now Bassett Healthcare Network is proud to offer it to patients in our eight-county service region.

“This minimally invasive procedure is now the standard of care for the vast majority of patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis,” says Dhananjai Menzies, MD, FACC, FSCAI, Bassett’s cardiac catheterization lab director and director of the interventional program.

Physicians perform TAVR without open-heart surgery — patients usually have only an overnight stay in the hospital. Several studies over the past decade have confirmed TAVR’s overall advantages over open-heart surgery in terms of patient outcomes.

Some patients who have aortic valve disease will not be candidates for TAVR, notes John Kelley, MD, chief of cardiac surgery. “For example, people with complex coronary artery disease or multiple valve issues may still need to undergo traditional heart surgery,” he says. “But this gives us another option for treating valve failure, and having it available in Cooperstown means our patients’ recovery and care can occur close to home.”