Rare heart valve replacement surgery held in Oman

Muscat: For the first time, a rare heart valve replacement surgery was carried out successfully at the National Heart Center at Royal Hospital in Oman.
According to medics, they performed a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) procedure, by using a catheter technique instead classic open heart surgery for five patients who suffered severe cardiac valve problems.
The TAVI surgical procedure repairs the valve without removing the old, damaged valve. Instead, it wedges a replacement valve into the valve’s place.
Somewhat similar to a stent placed in an artery, the TAVI approach delivers a fully collapsible replacement valve to the valve site through a catheter.
Once the new valve is expanded, it pushes the old valve out of the way and the tissue in the replacement valve takes over the job of regulating blood flow.
“Performing TAVI by using catheterisation technique instead of the usual open heart surgery has a great effort and long development processes through many big studies for the benefits to the communities and humanity globally,” Dr Redha, Senior Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, a visitor from Saudi Arabia, said.
The surgery was performed by a highly-skilled medical team which consists of five specialised teams — senior consultant cardiologists, senior consultant cardiac surgeons, cardiovascular technologists, cardiac anaethesists and cardiac nurses.