Christopher Ortiz
Assistant Managing Editor
Albuquerque Business First
The Heart Hospital of New Mexico at Lovelace Medical Center now can offer a new procedure for high-risk cardiac patients.
The company announced it is now offering a new minimally invasive surgery called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) for cardiac patients who have conditions that prohibit them from getting open-heart surgery, such as age, sickness or prior open-heart surgery. The surgery is possible because of the hospital's new hybrid operating room. A team successfully completed the first TAVR procedures in the new operating room on March 15.
The TAVR procedure involves placing a new heart valve over a malfunctioning one using a catheter inserted through the patient’s groin.
“The new hybrid operating room gives us the ability to perform this procedure safely,” said Elisa Gugerty, director of catheterization labs at Heart Hospital of New Mexico at Lovelace Medical Center. “The new radiologic equipment provides us unprecedented access, and the size of the room is big enough for the supplies and equipment we need to perform the procedure.”
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