An innovative approach for implanting a new aortic heart valve without open-heart surgery is being offered to patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Minimally-invasive aortic valve bypass benefits high-risk elderly patients

Transapical access is based on decades of clinical experience with de-airing the heart, through the tip (apex) of the left ventricle, during routine cardiac surgical interventions.

On Nov. 26, 2007, doctors at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute performed the first "transcatheter" minimally invasive replacement of an aortic heart valve in the western United States, using the SAPIEN transcatheter aortic heart valve developed by Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

A team of scientists from the Universitй de Montrйal and the Montreal Heart Institute Research Centre, led by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, has completed an important study that show how a new type of medication can lead to an improvement in the aortic valve narrowing.

Interventional cardiologists at Rush University Medical Center now offer a minimally-invasive transcatheter valve replacement procedure for patients with congenital heart disease that doesn’t involve open heart surgery.

Twenty years ago, few interventional cardiologists could have imagined that during their professional careers it would be possible to replace a diseased aortic valve using catheter-based techniques, rather than open-chest surgery. Alain Cribier, M.D., was not among the doubters.