New procedure helping heart patients at Duke
DURHAM (WTVD) -- A relatively new procedure being performed at Duke is helping older and sicker heart patients by cutting down on post-operative complications.
It's called TAVR, and it's lowering mortality rates and leading to fewer complications.
These are all benefits 90-year-old Westelle Foote can attest to. These days, she says she's feeling great, thanks to the life-saving procedure she had at Duke four years ago.
At the time, she was suffering from aortic valve stenosis.
"Aortic valve stenosis is a narrowing of the heart valve, so the last valve to leave the heart puts a lot of extra workload on the main pumping chamber in the heart. So eventually what happens, you back up pressures into the lungs and you can't breathe," explains Kevin Harrison, MD.
Harrison also said that this condition, if left untreated, is fatal. He further explained that for 50 years the standard treatment for aortic valve stenosis was to make a large incision in the chest.
That wasn't an option for Foote's treatment, due to her age and other complications, including COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Harrison pushed to get her approved for a procedure that was in the investigational stage at the time, called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, or TAVR for short.
"We typically do it through a very small incision to get the catheter in and out of the blood vessel," says Harrison.
In Foote's case, they went in through an artery in the groin area and ran a catheter up to her heart, making for a far less invasive procedure.
"It was just like I was picturing it in my mind, even though I was sedated. But I woke up, I was alright, I woke up smiling anyway," says Foote.
She's no longer on oxygen, and only coming back once a year for checkups.
"So I was able to get back to doing what I was doing, and I had to watch my diet of course," she shared.
After the surgery, Foote did have to cut back on the rum cake her family says she's famous for making. Overall, though, she said it was worth that sacrifice. And both she and Harrison say they're thrilled with the results.
While Foote was one of the first to have this procedure performed, TAVR has now become the norm for treating patients at Duke.
In 2014, the method was used for an estimated 95 percent of Duke's heart patients versus going in through a large incision in the chest.
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