Southeast Health reached a heart milestone Thursday, June 25 with the 100th Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedure.

Southeast Health is the region’s only hospital performing TAVR on site in Dothan. The first TAVR at Southeast Health was performed December 2017.

This revolutionary minimally invasive valve replacement is done by a catheterization procedure in place of traditional open-heart surgery. Traditional open-heart valve replacement surgery includes the use of a heart and lung machine that stops your heart from beating naturally.

The TAVR procedure allows an artificial aortic valve to be inserted within your existing valve. The artificial valve works similar to a stent that is placed in a blocked artery. The difference is a stent remains open all the time and the artificial valve opens and closes.

An interventional cardiologist and a cardiovascular surgeon work together with a multidisciplinary team to perform the TAVR procedure. At Southeast Health, two extensively trained physician teams are in place to perform the procedure. The cardiovascular surgeon are Steven F. Johnson, MD, and Joseph E. Graham, MD. They are team up with interventional cardiologist Andreas Muench, MD, and Peter M. Rao, MD.

TAVR is recommended for patients who have structural heart disease that results in aortic stenosis or narrowing of the aortic valve and are at high risk for traditional open-heart surgery. Aortic stenosis reduces or blocks blood flow from your heart into the main artery making the heart work harder. This can be caused primarily by congenital heart defects, calcium build-up or Rheumatic Fever.

The benefits of TAVR compared to open-heart surgery are: shorter recovery time, less pain, reduced length of stay in the hospital, potential life-saving option for high risk patients and improved quality of life.

For more information about the TAVR program, visit Southeast Health.org or call the Structural Heart Program at 334-944-4278 (HART). The TAVR program was made possible in part by generous donors to the Southeast Health Foundation. There is still an opportunity for interested donors to support projects related to the TAVR and Structural Heart Program though the Southeast Health Foundation. For more information please call the Foundation at 334-673-4150.