First Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery Performed in Armenia

An acclaimed doctor residing in Russia, Academician Bagrat Alekyan, is in Yerevan at the special invitation of the "Nork-Marash" Medical Center, which operates under the city council's jurisdiction.

The only way to save the life of an 80-year-old patient was through aortic valve surgery. Considering the patient's age and comorbidities, open surgery was contraindicated. Thanks to Doctor Alekyan and his team's expertise, the first transcatheter aortic valve implantation was successfully performed in Armenia.

“The aortic valve, which should have a circumference of 20-30 mm, had narrowed to just 6 mm in our patient. A balloon was placed, which was then removed, and as the vessel expanded, the valve was opened,” said Academician Bagrat Alekyan, the chief interventional cardiologist of the Russian Ministry of Health. The surgery lasted approximately 3 hours, and the patient is expected to remain in the medical center for 1-3 days.

The world's first surgery of this kind was performed in France in 2002, and currently, around 90,000 such operations are conducted annually.

“Our patient will likely not need any further interventions for at least 7-10 years,” noted Mikael Adamyan, the director of the medical center. The staff at "Nork-Marash" Medical Center is currently undergoing training, with plans to conduct similar minimally invasive procedures independently in the coming years.