In a first for Western New York, Vijay S. Iyer, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, last week successfully led a team of physicians to implant aortic valves in two patients.
Buffalo General Hospital is the only facility approved to implant these valves west of Albany in New York State.
“This procedure provides many patients who have been deemed inoperable an opportunity to get what is a life saving treatment with proven improvements in survival and quality of life,” says Iyer.
TAVR or Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation is a procedure where a bioprosthetic aortic valve is implanted to replace a severely stenotic aortic valve. At present, the FDA has only approved the access from the leg arteries. Iyer explains that TAVR is a minimally invasive procedure currently reserved for patients who have been turned down for a traditional aortic valve replacement by open heart surgery due to serious medical co-morbidities.
“The development of these valves is the end process of initial work in animals, followed by years of engineering improvements in the design of the valve and delivery techniques,” he says, “as well as the collaborative efforts of biomedical engineers and clinicians. The implantation of the valve in patients is also a complex process that requires the collaboration of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, vascular surgeons, anesthesiologists and radiologists.”
Iyer says that this achievement marks a highly significant collaboration among UB and Buffalo General clinicians, and provides an example of the kinds of benefits patients will see from translational medicine that will be fostered through the new joint UB-Kaleida Health building under construction. The building will host the UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center and Gates Vascular Institute on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Iyer’s research interests involve investigational interventional devices, stem cell therapeutics and acute coronary syndromes. His work at UB’s Center for Research in Cardiovascular Medicine has focused on hibernating myocardium and stem cell therapeutics for acute and chronic cardiovascular conditions.