On Friday, February 21, a team of Oklahoma Heart Institute physicians, led by Drs. Kamran Muhammad, Wayne Leimbach Jr. and Paul Kempe performed the first three successful commercial Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedures in Oklahoma using the recently FDA-approved Medtronic CoreValve.
The Medtronic CoreValve transcatheter heart valve was FDA approved just last month. The CoreValve device allows for a broader range of treatment options for patients living with severe aortic stenosis that are poor candidates for open-heart surgery for valve replacement. It is delivered through a smaller delivery catheter and is available in a greater number of valve sizes, as compared to the first generation transcatheter heart valve system that has been available since 2011.