Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)


My condition has improved greatly since the TAVR procedure. The nursing care in CVICU and CVIMC was wonderful, and Ginger in the Valve Clinic was so caring. Everybody from the doctors to the nurses were just wonderful. I can't even begin to explain how wonderful."

Minna B., Boca Raton

For patients who are considered high-risk and for those who cannot undergo open heart surgery, Holy Cross Health offers Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), utilizing a first-of-its-kind artificial heart valve that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. According to the FDA, approximately 300,000 patients in the U.S. experience valve deterioration, which means the heart must work harder to pump blood and that often leads to heart failure, blood clots and death. The Food and Drug Administration has broadened the group that can now be treated with the leading-edge surgical procedure.  Previously, it was approved in the U.S. only for the treatment of inoperable patients via the transfemoral approach (through the leg). The artificial heart valve can now be threaded into place via four different approaches, ensuring that every patient has an anatomical pathway to replace the aortic valve. 

 “There can be many factors which bar a patient from cardiac surgery or make it a high risk such as age, inability to withstand rehabilitation and other medical conditions the patient may have,” said Interventional Cardiologist Joshua Purow, M.D., of the Jim Moran Heart and Vascular Center and Research Institute at Holy Cross Health. “Now more patients will have access to this life-changing procedure."

According to the FDA, approximately 300,000 patients in the U.S. experience valve deterioration, which means the heart must work harder to pump blood and that often leads to heart failure, blood clots and death. The device is approved only for high-risk patients and for those patients who cannot have open heart surgery due to age, co-morbidities or an inability to withstand rehabilitation.

In May 2012, Holy Cross launched its Valve and Structural Heart Disease Clinic and its TAVR program, making us the most experienced TAVR team in South Florida, and we've seen success rates higher than the national average. To accommodate transcatheter aortic valve replacement, Holy Cross constructed a new, 2,000-square-foot hybrid interventional operating room to provide the safest, optimal environment for high-risk patient procedures. In addition to TAVR, the expansive operating room offers physicians advanced technology to perform other leading-edge procedures, including endovascular stent (abdominal & thoracic), balloon valvuplasty, lead extraction, surgical cardiac ablation, bypass LAD with stent, and ASD & PFO closures.

Valve and Structural Heart Disease Clinic 
4725 North Federal Highway  
Phone: 954-542-7974 
Se habla español 
Fax:  954-542-7953

If you are a physician interested in a consultation:  

Email the Valve Cinic Coordinator