Minimally Invasive Valve Replacement

Heart valves in may be repaired with expert surgery. New methods such as minimally invasive surgery and robotic assisted valve repair may be suitable and are available at the St Vincent’s Hospital Campus.

Where open heart surgery is not suitable a new technique of valve replacement may sometimes be used called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI). This involves a small incision in at the top of the leg and a wire is passed painlessly into the heart. A new valve is placed in the aorta to replace the old aortic valve. The procedure can take as little as two hours to perform and no chest incisions or cardiac bypass is usually required. St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney interventional cardiologists were some of the first to implement this new technique. Two different valve types are available with this approach, the Edwards and Core Valve.

The mitral valve leakage may also be fixed using a minimally invasive approach using the MitraClip device.