Advances
- Am I a Candidate for TAVR? The Heart Team, the CT Scan, and How the Decision Is Made
May 15, 2026
The heart team, a CT scan of your valve, your surgical risk and your age all decide whether TAVR suits you. Here is how candidacy works.
- MitraClip Explained: Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Mitral Repair (TEER)
May 12, 2026
MitraClip is a keyhole repair for a leaking mitral valve, clipping the leaflets together through a leg vein, offered mainly to patients at high surgical risk.
- Questions to Ask Your Cardiologist About TAVR: A Decision-Support Checklist
May 12, 2026
Walking into a TAVR consultation with the right questions: candidacy, valve choice, durability, risks and the team's experience, before you consent.
- Transcatheter vs Surgical Valve: The Shift From Open Surgery to Catheters
May 8, 2026
Trial by trial, catheter valve procedures have moved from a last resort to a mainstream option; what the shift from open surgery means for patients today.
- How Much Does TAVR Cost? The Drivers, the Access, and the Country Gap
April 14, 2026
What makes a TAVR bill so large, why waiting lists form, and how prices swing between countries, with a plain look at the cost drivers you can check.
- TAVR vs Open-Heart Surgery: Who Gets Which and What the Trials Showed
April 9, 2026
TAVR or open surgery: who gets which valve replacement, how the recovery and hospital stay differ, and what the major trials found.
- Types of Heart Valves: Tissue, Mechanical, and the TAVR Designs
April 5, 2026
Tissue valves avoid warfarin but last 10 to 15 years; mechanical valves last a lifetime on warfarin. How the two families and the TAVR designs differ.
- Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery: Keyhole and Mini Incision Cardiac Operations
April 2, 2026
Can heart surgery be done without splitting the breastbone? Keyhole and mini incision techniques reach the valve through small cuts between the ribs instead.
- TAVR Recovery: The Timeline From Discharge to Back to Normal
March 24, 2026
Most people are home within 1 to 3 days. What TAVR recovery really looks like week by week: discharge, blood thinners, activity and follow-up.
- How Long Does a TAVR Valve Last? Durability and the Second Procedure
March 10, 2026
Current trials show a TAVR valve working well to about 5 to 8 years, while longer-followed surgical tissue valves last roughly 10 to 15 years.
- Heart Valve Replacement Surgery: The Open Operation TAVR Is Measured Against
March 5, 2026
Open heart valve replacement opens the chest through the breastbone and stops the heart on bypass; here is the operation, the 5 to 7 day stay, and recovery.
- Living With a Heart Valve: Follow-up, Infection, Medication and Warning Signs
March 5, 2026
After a heart valve procedure, what follow-up, infection protection, medication and activity actually involve, and the warning signs worth acting on.
- The TAVR Procedure: What Happens on the Day, Step by Step
March 5, 2026
You are usually awake for it. Here is how a TAVR day unfolds, from the groin puncture and the catheter lab to waking up in the recovery bay.
- What Is TAVR? Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Explained End to End
March 5, 2026
How does a new heart valve go in without opening the chest? TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve replacement, explained end to end.
- Mitral Valve Regurgitation: The Leaking Valve and How It Is Treated
February 18, 2026
A leaking mitral valve lets blood wash backwards through the heart. Here are the symptoms, how the leak is graded, and the repair, clip, and surgery options.
- TAVR Risks and Complications: The Honest Numbers
February 17, 2026
How risky is TAVR? The plain figures on stroke, pacemakers, valve leak and 30-day mortality, and what raises or lowers each one for you.
- Aortic Stenosis: What a Narrowed Heart Valve Does and Why It Leads to Replacement
February 12, 2026
A stiffened aortic valve narrows until the heart cannot push enough blood through: what causes it, the symptoms, and how severity is graded.
- Advances in Interventional Cardiology: From Angioplasty to Valves on a Wire
February 10, 2026
From balloon angioplasty in the 1970s to valves delivered by catheter, interventional cardiology now fixes structures inside a beating heart. Here is how.