TEVAR procedure performed by cardiologists saves elderly man in Madurai hospital

The Hindu

19-06-2025

A 70-year-old man, who was suffering from a life threatening bulge in the major artery of his chest - a thoracic aortic aneurysm - was successfully treated by a team of surgeons at the Meenakshi Super Speciality Hospital.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, cardiologist Sivakumar and team members said that the patient was in cardiogenic shock, a critical condition where the heart is unable to pump enough blood. A CT aortogram revealed that the aneurysm had ruptured into the oesophagus, making the situation extremely grave, he said.
The doctors performed a minimally invasive procedure called Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair (TEVAR), placing a stent graft inside the damaged artery through a small puncture in the leg. The rupture was immediately sealed, leading to a remarkable recovery. The patient's blood pressure and kidney function improved significantly, and he was discharged with medication and is now doing well under close follow-up.
In another patient, using the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), a non-surgical method of replacing a severely narrowed aortic valve through a catheter-based approach, the team of surgeons successfully treated a 68-year-old man.
The patient had severe narrowing of the aortic valve (aortic stenosis) and was admitted with congestive cardiac failure (CCF). He had biventricular dysfunction with a reduced heart pumping capacity (ejection fraction of 35%), kidney failure (AKI), ascites, and pulmonary hypertension.
After evaluation and stabilisation with dialysis, the team performed TAVR, replacing the diseased valve through a small puncture in the groin. Once the new valve began to function, the patient showed rapid improvement in heart and kidney function. His liver condition also began to stabilise, and he was discharged in a stable condition.
In recent times, the hospital had successfully performed Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER), a technique that clips the leaking mitral valve to reduce mitral regurgitation without the need for open-heart surgery, for a 41-year-old male, Dr. Sivakumar added.
Before the advent of structural interventions, surgeons had to do open-heart surgery, stopping the heart, and using a heart-lung machine to fix or replace valves or walls. Recovery was long and riskier. Today, these advances allow surgeons to treat heart problems through blood vessels using advanced imaging and tiny tools. The procedures offer faster recovery, less pain and new hope for elderly or high-risk patients who couldn't undergo traditional surgery.
These high-risk structural interventions were performed by a multidisciplinary team including S. Selvamani, N. Ganesan, M. Sampath Kumar, Jeyapandiyan, Thomas Xavier, S. Kumar, R.M. Krishnan, Rajan, and Prabhu Kumarappan Chidambaram.