Hospital approved for heart valve replacement procedures




The Cardiovascular Institute of Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks says it’s the only site in Ventura County approved by the Food and Drug Administration to replace failing aortic heart valves in both high- and low-risk patients using a minimally invasive procedure rather than traditional open heart surgery.

In 2014, Dr. Vishva Dev, medical director of cardiac services at Los Robles Hospital, performed the hospital’s first transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure, which was approved in 2011 for use in patients who are at risk for conventional surgical aortic valve replacement.

The minimally invasive surgical procedure repairs the valve without removing the old, damaged valve. Instead, it implants a replacement valve into the aortic valve’s place via a catheter.

Los Robles Hospital became the first hospital between Los Angeles and Northern California to offer the valve procedure.

Los Robles Hospital is participating in two valve replacement clinical trials: the Medtronic Low-Risk Trial, which aims to reveal outcomes of this minimally invasive alternative in low-risk patients, and the PORTICO IDE, which looks at the new valve technology in high-risk populations.

The trial follows data that showed that patients who underwent the transcatheter procedure demonstrated higher survival rates compared to patients who underwent conventional valve replacement.



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