Beverly Press: Cedars-Sinai Study Shows Open-heart Surgery Alternative

Raj Makkar, MD, led a multicenter national study comparing outcomes for minimally invasive heart valve replacement to open-heart surgery. Photo by Cedars-Sinai.

Beverly Press recently interviewed Raj Makkar, MD, about a new research study showing that patients who underwent a minimally invasive transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR), had similar key five-year outcomes as patients who had traditional open-heart surgery to replace the valve.

The findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, compared long-term outcomes of the two different approaches to treating aortic stenosis, a common heart problem affecting some 12% of people over 65.

“The results of this study are encouraging because TAVR was comparable in terms of outcomes," said Makkar, who serves as vice president of Cardiovascular Innovation and Intervention for Cedars-Sinai and was the study’s lead author. “These findings allow patients to have more peace of mind and undergo a less invasive procedure. Unlike surgery, TAVR is now often done without or with minimal anesthesia and with next-day discharge from the hospital.”

According to the American Heart Association, nearly 1.5 million people in the U.S. have aortic valve stenosis, a narrowing or hardening of the aortic valve caused by calcium buildup on the heart valve flaps. Patients with a severe form of the disease experience symptoms including shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue and fainting. Many cannot even walk enough to perform basic daily activities.

Aortic stenosis often results in death within three years of diagnosis. Replacing the aortic valve – either through the TAVR procedure or surgery – restores patients’ life expectancy to normal.

Click here to read the complete article from Beverly Press.

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