H.D. Kumaraswamy to undergo aortic valve replacement in Chennai hospital on March 21

JD State president H.D. Kumaraswamy to undergo TAVI at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai on March 21.

JD (S) State president and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will undergo a transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), a non-surgical procedure, at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai on March 21. He is likely to be discharged by March 24.

This is the third time that he is undergoing the procedure as he has developed restenosis due to tissue valve degeneration, the previous occasions being in 2007 and 2017. Despite advances in stent technology, restenosis continues to be the most frequent cause of target lesion failure following percutaneous coronary intervention. Mr. Kumaraswamy had suffered a stroke twice in the past and is also diabetic. The surgery is being done in Chennai to avoid the regular flow of visitors and his well-wishers to the hospital, sources said.

Dr. C.N. Manjunath, former director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, who is now the BJP candidate for Bengaluru Rural parliamentary constituency, told The Hindu that the procedure would be conducted by a team of doctors led by Sai Satish, interventional cardiologist and head of Structural Heart Diseases at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. Dr. Satish is also a teaching faculty at the Gottsegen Institute of Cardiology in Budapest, Hungary.

He said TAVI is a common non-surgical procedure that improves the blood flow in the heart by replacing an aortic valve that does not open fully. Following the procedure, the patient gets a better quality of life and improvement in symptoms, such as chest pain and breathlessness, he said.