Dr. Susheel Kodali kept his gaze fixed on the four monitors suspended above the patient he was operating on at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center's Heart Valve Center. "You see, one of the keys to this procedure is imaging, because we're not opening the chest, so we use all modalities available including X-Ray and echo," he said. Kodali and his team have performed more than 1,200 transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures just like this one, more than any other institution in the U.S., since TAVR was approved by the FDA three years ago. It's a non-invasive alternative to heart surgery that replaces the aortic valve, responsible for pumping blood out of the heart, via a narrow tube called a catheter.
