HEART
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Treasure Coast Medical Report
DR. PRASAD CHALASANI COLLECTION
Chalasani, an interventional cardiologist, is passionate about saving lives.
they go home. Maybe a little soreness in the groin, but that
resolves over the course of a week or so. There’s no recovery
in the chest or heart area.”
But what’s even more remarkable is the impact TAVR has
on patients’ lives. Dr. Prasad Chalasani, an interventional cardiologist
in Fort Pierce, finds performing the surgery rewarding
since it gives his patients a new lease on life.
“Patients who have the TAVR procedure … it’s a day and
night difference, how you can switch a light off and a light
on,” he says. “Their quality of life was so different before,
because they were restricted on what they could do. When
you’re getting one-half or one-third of blood flow to the rest
of your body, you get fatigued and short of breath very easily.
All of a sudden, you open the valve and you’ve got plenty of
blood flow. You feel like, ‘Oh, I can swim now! I couldn’t do
that for the last three years, Dr. Chalasani!’ That’s where you
get the most gratifying results, that’s where you feel good.”
Randomized trials have pitted TAVR against traditional
SAVR. In one trial, high-risk patients who had the SAVR
procedure were compared with high-risk patients who had
TAVR. The patients were followed for all-cause mortality and
stroke. The findings showed that TAVR was safer and better
tolerated than SAVR for high-risk surgical patients. Studies
were later conducted on patients who were at intermediate
risk for open heart surgery. Again, TAVR was shown to
be as safe as traditional treatment, and fewer complications
resulted from putting in the valve.
“Basically, it’s proven as good, if not better, in all populations
studied at this point,” observes McIntyre.
TAVR is not yet approved for low-risk patients but is currently
in clinical trial. The results of those studies should be
available next year.
In April 2016, TAVR surgery became available to heart >>
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