Jersey Shore University Medical Center Performs State’s First Double Transcatheter Valve and Ablation Procedure

Simultaneous TAVR, TMVR and Alcohol Septal Ablation Procedure

Experts from Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center’s Structural Heart Disease Program recently performed, to knowledge, New Jersey’s first transcatheter double heart valve replacement, combined with a procedure to improve blood flow in the heart.

The patient was struggling simultaneously with severe aortic stenosis and severe mitral valve stenosis, heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, and substantial calcification of the heart valves and could not safely undergo multiple open-heart procedures.

To reduce patient risk, the multidisciplinary team performed the minimally invasive valve replacements, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR), simultaneously followed by an alcohol septal ablation to make room in the heart chamber for the prosthetic valves and ensure blood flow was not impeded.

TMVR applies a valve designed for aortic valve replacement or TAVR in a compassionate, off-label use to treat the mitral valve when no other options exist. The team planned in advance for the possibility that replacing two valves at once may result in crowding within the heart chamber, which was detected intra-operatively and corrected successfully with an alcohol septal ablation procedure. Injecting alcohol via catheter into select arteries supplying an abnormally thickened portion of the patient’s heart causes the tissue to thin out over time. This procedure more often is performed on patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, but the team saw benefits for application in this case.

The patient returned home from the hospital within four days and was expected to make a full recovery with enhanced quality of life.

Completing this complex case required the expertise of our complete team of cardiovascular physicians, nurses and imaging specialists working together in the center’s hybrid operating suite. For many years, Jersey Shore University Medical Center specialists have performed the second highest volume annually of diagnostic and interventional cardiac procedures in New Jersey.

Learn More about cardiac care advancements happening at Jersey Shore University Medical Center.