Blogs → HVCA Docs in the Community → Dr. Ashish Pershad Performs First FDA Approved Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Arizona

Posted Jan 10, 2012 3:30 pm (129 days ago)

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Heart & Vascular Center of Arizona is proud to announce that on Monday, January 9, 2012, Dr. Ashish Pershad performed the first two Edwards Sapien Transcatheter Aortic Valve implants in Arizona.  The Heart Team at the Cavanaugh Heart Center at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, has been chosen as one of a handful of sites nationwide for the recently FDA approved Edwards Sapien Transcatheter Aortic Valve. The team has been performing transcatheter valve replacement for nine months using the Medtronic CoreValve, which is currently in a clinical trial enrolling patients.  This FDA approved catheter based valve is available for patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis who are considered inoperable or very high surgical risk by a cardiac surgeon.

Aortic Stenosis (AS) is a disease of the elderly with a prolonged, insidious development over decades. With aging, protein collagen of the valve leaflets is destroyed, and calcium is deposited on the leaflets.  Aortic stenosis is an abnormal narrowing of the aortic valve.  Without replacement, severe AS carries a grim prognosis with less than one in three patients surviving five years after the development of symptoms.  Although aortic valve replacement provides good long-term survival with functional improvement, many elderly patients are still not referred for surgery because of their age and co-morbidities.  Percutaneous aortic valve implantation offers an alternative to open-heart surgery.