Oak Lawn, Ill. – A team of heart specialist physicians with the Advocate Heart Institute at Christ Medical Center is the first in Illinois to use the new Portico™ Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valve (TAVR) to replace a patient’s valve without the need to perform open-heart surgery.
Typically, TAVR is performed in patients with severe narrowing of the aortic valve who are considered too high-risk to undergo a conventional open-heart valve replacement surgery. During the procedure, a new heart valve is advanced into position via a catheter through a small incision in the femoral artery, the main artery of the leg.
The heart continues to beat during the procedure, which avoids the need to place patients on cardiopulmonary bypass, a process in which a machine takes over heart and lung function during surgery.
“We are proud to be the first hospital in Illinois to implant this state-of-the-art, next-generation technology,” said Ravi Ramana, DO, cardiologist at Christ Medical Center and one of the lead physicians for the study. “We are pleased to be able to provide our patients with the newest medical technologies.”
“One of the characteristics of the Portico valve that may be helpful in the care of patients is that the device can be completely repositioned at the implant site or retrieved before it is released from the delivery system. This may help us get the new heart valve in the exact spot we need to for optimal patient results,” said Antone Tatooles, MD, cardiovascular surgeon at Christ Medical Center.
The Portico Transcatheter Heart Valve is commercially available in Europe. In the United States, the valve is being evaluated as part of an FDA-approved clinical study.
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Advocate Heart Institute
Advocate Heart Institute is Illinois’ most comprehensive cardiac care program, providing state-of-the-art treatment for adults and children. Advocate Heart Institute operates more than 100 convenient locations with more than 350 cardiovascular specialists who perform more than 20,000 heart procedures each year—more than any other hospital in Chicago. Advocate Heart Institute also trains future cardiologists at its three teaching hospitals. Eight Advocate hospitals are recognized by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Associations’ Get With the Guidelines® program for high quality care and improved outcomes in the areas of heart failure, stroke and resuscitation. Advocate Children’s Heart Institute is also one of the largest programs in the Midwest and is nationally recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the Top 50 Pediatric Cardiology Programs in the country. For the third consecutive year, Advocate Children’s Heart Institute has earned the Society of Thoracic Surgeons highest national quality three-star rating for its pediatric cardiovascular surgery program.
About Advocate Christ Medical Center
Advocate Christ Medical Center is part of Advocate Health Care, which is one of the nation’s leading health care networks. A not-for-profit, 749-bed, premier teaching institution with more than 1,200 affiliated physicians, Christ Medical Center is a leader in health care and one of the major referral hospitals in the Midwest in a number of specialties, including cardiovascular services, heart, kidney and lung transplantation, neurosciences, oncology, orthopedics and women’s health. The hospital also has one of the busiest Level I trauma centers in Illinois providing emergency care for more than 100,000 patient visits annually and is a leader in breakthrough technologies, including eICU® (electronic intensive care unit) monitoring, robotic da Vinci Surgery System® and CyberKnife® Radiosurgery. U.S. News & World Report has ranked the medical center among the nation’s leading providers for cardiology and heart surgery, gynecology and pulmonology and rated it overall as being among the top five hospitals in Illinois. The hospital is also recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as a Magnet Center. Magnet status represents the highest honor in the nursing profession. To obtain more information or to visit our newsroom, log on to: www.advocatehealth.com/cmc.