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UNC TAVR team members (left to right): John Vavalle, M.D., a cardiologist; Thomas Caranasos, M.D., a cardiac surgeon; Michael Yeung, M.D., a cardiologist; Cassie Ramm, M.S.N., coordinator of the TAVR program. (UNC Health Care photo)

Oct. 5, 2015

UNC physicians are among the first to use a new device for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) that can make the procedure safer and will make the procedure available to more patients. UNC is part of the first phase of use of the new TAVR device, CoreValve® Evolut™ R System, produced by Medtronic. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Evolut R for use in June 2015.

Since November 2014, UNC has offered TAVR, a minimally invasive procedure for patients who are not able to undergo open surgery for aortic valve replacement. Aortic valve stenosis (narrowing) occurs when the opening of the aortic valve becomes narrow and the valve does not open properly to allow oxygenated blood to travel from the heart to the aorta and then to the rest of the body.

Aortic valve stenosis means the heart has to work harder to pump blood through the valve. As the stenosis becomes severe, the patient develops heart failure and symptoms such as chest pain or shortness of breath; life expectancy is only about one or two years. Many patients who have severe aortic valve stenosis are too frail to undergo conventional open-heart surgery. For them, the answer can be TAVR, in which the surgeon can use small incisions to thread small tubes and tools to into the body to place a new valve.

The Evolut R TAVR device improves the procedure because it is smaller and easier to thread through the patient’s femoral arteries in the groin. It also can be recaptured and repositioned, if necessary, once it is in place.

“Previously, you had one shot to get it right,” said Thomas G. Caranasos, M.D., a UNC cardiac surgeon and member of the TAVR team. “With this valve, you have the ability to recapture and reposition it, which adds a new level of safety to the procedure.”

Read more about the new device here, in an article from UNC Health Care.

For more information on UNC’s TAVR program, email Cassie Ramm, M.S.N., nurse coordinator for the program, at or call 1-800-806-1968.

– Margaret Alford Cloud, UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, mcloud@med.unc.edu