St. Luke's conducts revolutionary TAVI heart treatment

MANILA, Philippines - Patients affected with severely blocked aortic valves of the heart or severe aortic stenosis may now consider a new treatment option in the Philippines — the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI). It was introduced first in the country by the leading heart specialists of St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City just last month.

TAVI is a minimally invasive procedure which does not involve the use of a heart lung machine nor large chest incisions.

It is ideal for the elderly, those who are at high risk of death or complications following open surgical valve replacement, or those who are not candidates for open surgery due to multiple medical problems.

TAVI is considered a revolutionary and transformational procedure by the international medical community. 

The first and only TAVI procedure in the country was led by Dr. Fabio Enrique Posas, a highly experienced interventional cardiologist, with Dr. Estanislaode Castro, a leading cardiothoracic surgeon, and proctored by TAVI specialist Dr. Eberhard Grube of Stanford University School of Medicine and Medizinische Klinik.

The successful operation was performed by the cardiology and surgical team of St. Luke’s which included Drs. Ofelia Najos Valencia, a cardio imaging expert and the team’s cardiac imaging head; Dahlia Estrera, cardiovascular anesthesiologist; Ferdinand Alzate, interventional cardiologist; and Donald Cristobal, cardiac imaging.

The patient, an 87-year-old female, underwent the successful one and a half-hour procedure. She was discharged on a significantly improved condition barely a week after receiving the valve implant.

Unlike traditional open heart surgery, TAVI uses a small incision at the groin and can be done while the heart is pumping. 

More recently, the procedure has been done without surgical cuts or fully percutaneously and under sedation. The tissue valve or bioprosthetic is positioned and deployed using a catheter inserted through the groin arteries and positioned at the aortic valve area under x-ray guidance. 

This allows the patients to experience less physical stress or trauma and less pain. It also minimizes risk of infection and enables faster ambulation and recovery.

“With this technology, you can treat very sick patients in a less invasive way,” said Dr. Eberhard Grube. “I think it’s wonderful that the Philippines is now open to field this procedure. Given the high profile and high quality of work demonstrated by the medical team, the hospital facilities and its personnel, we are now ready to extend this technology to local patients who require it,” he said.

TAVI was only previously offered by leading institutions in the United States, Europe and highly selected centers in the Asia-Pacific region. St. Luke’s landmark TAVI procedure proves that advanced and high-quality medical care is right at every Filipino’s doorstep.

“Through this successful TAVI procedure, we have shown that this technology can be safely performed in the Philippines, by Filipino physicians — people don’t have to fly out of the country in order to access these technologies for their health care,” said Posas, the lead interventional cardiologist during the operation.

He acknowledged the value of new treatments to high-risk patients like the elderly and those unable to endure open heart surgery. He emphasized that TAVI can prolong and enhance patients’ lives and he hopes that more physicians who care for such patients will recognize TAVI as a life-saving procedure which minimizes patient discomfort and which can be performed rapidly and efficiently.

Dr. Nick Cruz, director of St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City’s Heart Institute, said breakthrough procedures like TAVI is advantageous to all Filipinos and that this kind of medical innovation benefits not only the hospital but the country as well.

For more information on the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), contact the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City at 789-7700 ext. 3025.