This article was originally published in French on Medscape.
WASHINGTON, DC — By giving Alain Cribier, MD, PhD, professor emeritus at Rouen University Hospital in Rouen, France, the Presidential Citation Award, the American College of Cardiology Congress (ACC 2022) paid homage to the interventional cardiologist who, through sheer determination, succeeded in devising the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure. It was just 20 years ago that the first valve was implanted at Rouen University Hospital in a man with inoperable aortic stenosis. We look back with Hélène Eltchaninoff, MD, head of cardiology at Rouen University Hospital, on those years of research and perseverance before the device became so widely used.
Multiple cardiac arrests, cardiogenic shock, limited heart function with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 12%, an inaccessible femoral approach, multiple comorbidities...the first patient to receive a TAVR to treat symptomatic aortic stenosis was far from having the ideal profile to guarantee the best chances of success. Yet the results surpassed expectations.
Recovery in 8 Days
On that day in April 2002, the 57-year-old patient, whose stenosis had been managed unsuccessfully with aortic dilatation, was admitted to Rouen University Hospital to undergo the first transcatheter aortic valve implantationwhich until that point had only been tested in animals.
