2023-09-22 02:00:00
Medical sciences and their researchers, worldwide, are constantly dedicated to ensuring that surgeries and procedures are as bloodless and least invasive every day. This has been happening for a long time and we see how in abdominal surgery the cut in the skin has almost been abandoned for the option of laparoscopy and at the thoracic level many situations are currently resolved with thoracoscopy. In the specific case of the heart, today we happily have TAVI (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation) well, and what is TAVI?: it consists of a technique with a catheter, without the need to open the sternum, nor stop the heart, nor assist the patient with extracorporeal circulation and in which a new valve is deployed and implanted over the diseased valve with a balloon. A French doctor, Dr. Alain Cribier, in 2002 in Rouen, France, did it for the first time in a human being and it was a true milestone in the history of cardiology, although 17 years before, he had tried to do it, But the patients presented various short-term complications and in 1999 he founded his own company PVT (Percutaneus Valve Technologies) since he could not find a medical company that was interested in his research. The procedure arose mainly for elderly, frail and high-risk patients, but little by little it gained ground, with new valves appearing in constant improvement and being applied to lower-risk patients. The company that Dr. Cribier founded was bought by a North American firm, Edwards Lifesciences, and it develops the balloon-expandable valve. By way of information, we will say that aortic stenosis is a disease of the heart valve that, being severe, can sometimes be asymptomatic or cause discomfort such as dyspnea, chest pain or syncope. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, the solution will be open chest valve replacement surgery, or this new alternative which is TAVI, a mini-invasive procedure. Eugene Braunwald (maximum reference and world teacher of cardiology) will say to praise him: “Probably today we are seeing part of the history of cardiology.” Mick Jagger, leader of the well-known band Rolling Stones, underwent this procedure and within a week he was singing on stage. In Argentina, we also already have good experience with it, and a few days ago, a patient from Tucumán was successfully subjected to the procedure and today she is fully recovered and living her life normally. Finally we will say that, just as we spread and receive a bombardment of often negative news such as neglect of the environment, indiscriminate logging, wars or human trafficking, we live in a time in which advances in science and specifically in cardiology are today very good news, although it is not spread, and we doctors imagine what we will see and/or what will come in the future. In this field, let us not forget three Argentines who had a lot to do with it and who left their mark: Dr. René Favaloro with his Aortocoronary By Pass, Dr. Julio Palmaz and his Stent, and Dr. Juan Parodi and his vascular endoprostheses. , all fascinating steps on this endless ladder which is that of scientific improvement for the benefit of all of humanity, even those leaders and leaders who denigrate capitalism and who will surely come the time, quietly, will have to ask for a TAVI, if so They need it for their heart, today American made and licensed.
#Letters #readers #TAVI