DOHA: Surgeons at the Heart Hospital have started performing a new procedure that can improve the quality of life for high risk patients.
The Transcatheter Aoritc Valve Implantation System (TAVI) has been performed on two patients in Qatar since October.
The surgery is carried out by a team of surgeons including TAVI specialists from the Heart Hospital led by Dr. Abdulrahman Al Nabti, senior consultant and the head of the valve transplantation program; and a cardiac specialist team led by Dr Abdulaziz Alkhulaifi, chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Over the span of a lifetime, the human heart beats more than two billion times.
With each beat, flexible valves within the heart’s chambers open and shut to prevent blood flowing backwards. With advancing age these valves can start to fail; the opening can become narrowed which reduces blood blow to the heart, resulting in dizziness, difficulty walking and other complications. This condition is also known as angina, one of the most common forms of heart disease and untreated can often be fatal.
The new technique allows for a replacement valve to be delivered via a catheter using one of several access methods: transfemoral (in the upper leg), transapical (through the wall of the heart), subclavian (beneath the collar bone) and direct aortic (through a minimally invasive surgical incision into the aorta).
Offered for the first time in Qatar, surgeons successfully performed the procedure twice – on a 75-year-old Qatari woman and a 61-year-old Pakistani male. Al Nabti travelled to Canada to be trained in the procedure which addresses one of the most common causes of heart disease. Manufacturers of the valve also work with teams from the Heart Hospital to ensure they are up to date with advances in the procedure.
The Peninsula
