TAVR

Picture replacing a stuck, stiff one-way door without demolishing the whole wall — you slide a new door in through a side passage and let it expand into place. TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) does this for a diseased aortic valve: a new valve is delivered through a blood vessel and deployed inside the old one, without opening the chest or stopping the heart.

The aortic valve guards the exit from the heart’s main pumping chamber. When it becomes severely narrowed and stiff (aortic stenosis), the heart must strain to push blood through. In TAVR, a collapsible replacement valve mounted on a stent-like frame is threaded up an artery (usually in the groin) and expanded within the old valve, pushing the diseased leaflets aside and taking over their job immediately.

TAVR was first used for patients too frail or high-risk for open surgery, but evidence now supports it across a broad range of risk levels for aortic stenosis. It avoids a large incision and offers faster recovery; trade-offs compared with surgery can include a greater chance of needing a pacemaker afterward and ongoing study of how long the valves last. The choice between TAVR and surgical replacement is made case by case.