My Friend Had Their Aortic Valve Replaced Through The Groin, but My Doctor Tells Me They Have to Crack Me Open to Replace Mine

On this episode of Asked and Answered, Dr. Alexander Postalian will discuss how each case is different and some patients require different treatment then others.

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Transcript

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My doctor told me I need my aortic valve replaced, and he tells me they have to crack me open. A friend of mine had the valve replaced through the groin. Why is this not an option for me? Hello, my name is Alexander Ian. I'm an interventional cardiologist here at the Texas Art Institute in Houston, Texas. And welcome to Asked and Answered, where we try to answer, uh, patient questions that are common and some that are not so common. And, uh, hopefully we can make sense of, uh, some problems that some folks are having. Okay, so the aortic valve is a valve that sits between the left ventricle, which is one of the main heart chambers of the heart and the aorta, which is the big vessel that comes out, this one right here. So blood comes from there into the aorta out, and the aortic valve opens to allow the blood to come out, and then it closes to prevent it from going back. So to, to chip, chip, chip, chip In some patients over time because of genetic factors or some other reasons, the aortic valve becomes stiff and it opens less, and then it gets to a point where it barely opens and the heart has to, uh, uh, pump hard to open it up. That is called aortic stenosis, and that is the most common reason for needing an aortic valve replaced. It may not be that for you who asked the question, but is the most common reason in the past. The only way we could do that is open up the chest or crack me open as he's saying, and that's still necessary for, or he or she. Uh, that's still necessary for some people, but now we have another option, which is going through the groin, minimally invasively, and putting the valve in place. Uh, that procedure, the, the groin one transcatheter is called tavr, has gotten better over time and has grown. We used to only do it in patients that were really old and you couldn't do surgery. Now we are doing the transcatheter one more than the surgical one, but again, not everybody's a candidate for the transcatheter one. There are anatomical limitations, uh, and a list of things that we have to make sure that you do have or don't have to be able to do it with a catheter. So it might be an option for you. Um, it is worth investigating if you're interested. And what we do here is when somebody has an a valve problem, we all get together in a room, cardiologists, surgeons, uh, some other doctors, and we decide what is the best way to, to move forward. So it seems like something like that may have to be done with you. Well, this has been great. This has been a pleasure to be here. You know, I, I, I love doing this, so please send any questions. It can be anything cardiology related, high blood pressure, diet, medications, testing, valve issues, pacemaker issues, heart failure issues, uh, exercise, you know, questions about limitation or what can you do, et cetera. Um, just send it all. We'll be happy to look it over. Maybe they'll feature in our, our next, uh, session here. And again, this is a general discussion, so if you have any symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, it's always good to talk to your doctor and remember that every patient is an individual. So while we can make general recommendations in the end, we always make an individual recommendation for a specific patient. So when you're watching something, asking a question, just keep keep that in mind. We're giving you a general recommendation, but if you want a specific one, talk to your doctor.