Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)

What is Aortic Stenosis?

Aortic stenosis is one of the most common and serious valve disease problems. Aortic stenosis is a narrowing of the aortic valve opening. Aortic stenosis restricts the blood flow from the left ventricle to the aorta and may also affect the pressure in the left atrium.

What is TAVR?

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) is a less invasive, catheter-based procedure to replace a diseased aortic valve. This procedure shortens surgical time, hospital stay, and recovery period, which improves quality of life for patients.

Cardiac specialists working closely during TAVR procedure at Shasta Regional Medical Center advanced heart care unit

Severe Aortic Stenosis and Treatment

In elderly patients, aortic stenosis is sometimes caused by the buildup of calcium (i.e., mineral deposits) on the aortic valve’s leaflets. Over time, the leaflets become stiff, which reduces their ability to fully open and close. When the leaflets don’t fully open, a person’s heart must work harder to push blood through the aortic valve to the rest of the body.
Approximately 2.5 million people in the US over the age of 75 suffer from this disease.
Severe aortic stenosis is life-threatening, and treatment is critical. After the onset of symptoms, patients with severe aortic stenosis have a survival rate as low as 50% at 2 years and 20% at 5 years without aortic valve replacement.

Additional information about TAVR:

The TAVR procedure with the SAPIEN 3 valve enables the placement of a balloon-expandable valve into the heart via a catheter-based approach.
The SAPIEN valve platform has been helping to treat patients for more than a decade.
SAPIEN 3 TAVR is designed to replace a patient’s diseased native aortic valve or a patient’s failing surgical bioprosthetic tissue valve in need of replacement.
Edwards TAVR valves are made of bovine (i.e., cow) pericardial tissue, which is modeled after Edwards’ clinically proven surgical tissue valves.
Valve-in-valve procedures with the SAPIEN 3 valve have proven to increase a patient’s quality of life and avoid the risks of another open-heart procedure.

Aortic Stenosis Fact Sheet

Smiling mature patient discussing TAVR heart treatment options at Shasta Regional Medical Center cardiac services department

500th TAVR Procedure!

Our successful TAVR program continues to benefit our local community. We are honored to have completed our 500th procedure and we continue to grow our program and serve the needs of the region as the only program north of Sacramento, California.

Congratulations to our entire TAVR Team!

Surgery room during TAVR transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure in Redding CA

Minimally Invasive Heart Procedure Team Performs Remarkable 500th Procedure

Shasta Regional’s Heart Valve Team

Shasta Regional’s Heart Valve Clinic uses a multidisciplinary team approach. Our team consists of an interventional cardiologist, cardiothoracic surgeon, cardiac anesthesiologists, and registered nurses. Each patient is evaluated by the team to make the best possible treatment plan and all care is coordinated by our TAVR Program Coordinator.

FOR INFORMATION AND PHYSICIAN REFERRAL CONTACT JESSICA DUKE, TAVR PROGRAM COORDINATOR.