Morton Plant Hospital First in World to Perform TAV Replacement in RESTORE Study

BayCare’s Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater recently completed the world’s first TAV-in-TAV as part of a study called RESTORE.

TAV-in-TAV is for people who have undergone a prior TAVR procedure, but the replacement valve is coming to the end of its life cycle and needs to be replaced.

TAVR, an acronym for transcatheter aortic valve replacement and pronounced “tăver,” is a minimally invasive heart valve replacement procedure used to treat severe aortic stenosis, or narrowing of the aortic valve, which increases the workload and strain on the heart. Instead of opening the chest, doctors insert a catheter into an artery, usually in the groin area, and guide it into the heart, implanting a new aortic heart valve inside the original diseased valve.

Most TAVR valves are designed to last about a decade. Now some of the patients who had the procedure in the early years of the program are experiencing the same symptoms they had before the TAVR, such as shortness of breath and a decline in energy.

“Patients don’t want to go back. They want to continue doing the things they enjoy, so they want the old valves replaced,” said BayCare Medical Group Cardiovascular Surgeon Joshua Rovin, MD, FACS, and medical director of The Center for Advanced Valve and Structural Heart Care at Morton Plant Hospital.

One of those patients was Ronald Yurkus, the first patient in the RESTORE study. When Yurkus, 82, noticed he was getting easily winded, he went to see his cardiologist who recommended he return to the Center for Advanced Valve and Structural Heart Care at Morton Plant Hospital where he received his first TAVR in 2016.

“I noticed I was slowing down, and I don’t have time for that,” said Yurkus, who is his wife’s caregiver. When Dr. Rovin mentioned the study, Yurkus was eager to be the first patient.

Though some centers are using the TAV-in-TAV process already, this is the first formal study for the procedure.

“Many centers have done the procedure to place a TAVR valve into another TAVR valve, but the investigational study will help determine optimal procedural methods to deliver excellent patient outcomes,” said Dr. Rovin.

Yurkus stayed overnight in the hospital and will follow up in a month with Morton Plant’s valve center.

Yurkus is one of thousands of patients who have benefited from the work of the team at Morton Plant Hospital’s Center for Advanced Valve and Structural Heart Care since the team performed its first TAVR in 2012, introducing the minimally invasive surgery to the Tampa Bay area.

Through the years, the team has participated in many of the structural heart clinical trials, which have given the community access to the latest cutting-edge treatments for patients with aortic stenosis.

Medtronic, one of the primary manufacturers of heart valves, is sponsoring the investigational study. If you are interested in participating in this study, visit Cardiovascular Clinical Trials.

For more information on BayCare's structural heart programs: BayCare Heart Valve Centers