Valves, which are currently being procured from the U.S. for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedures, need to go the way coronary stents have in terms of pricing came into the market, it cost nearly ₹2.5 lakh. Today, because of expansion and government involvement, the stents were available for ₹30,000 and more people were being helped. This was exactly the path, according to A.B. Gopalamurugan, senior consultant, interventional cardiologist and electrophysiologist at Kauvery Hospital.
“We are trying to speed up the process through awareness, government involvement and education,” he said at the ‘India Valves 2019’, pointing out that the valves were very expensive at ₹15 lakh to ₹18 lakh. In a step towards this, he said they already met the Union Minister of State for Health and presented data on TAVR.
In elderly patients with heart valve disease, TAVR involves replacing the valve without open heart surgery, he said.
In the USA and Europe, clear guidelines were issued to treat the elderly with heart valve disease with TAVR procedures. This after multiple randomised studies across the world suggested that elderly persons were better off with TAVR. “Here, many elderly patients have surgeries. Though it leads to a successful surgery, it leads to poorer quality of life due to lack of awareness and clear guidelines from the national bodies,” he said.
To expand the treatment, training of clinicians and spreading knowledge was crucial. For this, a conference — India Valves — was started in 2016. At India Valves 2019, on in the citybeing held in Chennai from September 6 to 8, Dr. Gopalamurugan said about 800 heart specialists from across the country are participating. There would be live demonstration of valve replacements. Fourteen experts from US, UK, Japan, China and Middle East were taking part.
The conference marks the launch of a National Transcatheter Valve Registry of India.
