Stamford Hospital Launches New Structural Heart Disease Center & Valve Clinic

Stamford Hospital has launched a new Structural Heart Disease (SHD) Center and Valve Clinic to provide comprehensive screening and evaluation to patients with complex structural heart and valve disease. In collaboration with Columbia/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Center provides patients with the latest, most innovative treatment options.

The Center features a multidisciplinary team of specialty physicians in cardiac surgery, interventional cardiology, vascular surgery and cardiac imaging who provide care for patients with valve disease and adult congenital heart disease. The team utilizes a full spectrum of structural heart and valve procedures to evaluate and treat patients, including those with aortic valve stenosis, one of the most common valve diseases that affects the aging population. Patients with this condition had previously been thought to be ineligible for corrective surgery due to their advanced age, co-morbidities or previous multiple procedures. However, these patients may now be eligible for new minimally invasive repair and replacement techniques.

“Our goal is to provide the most advanced minimally invasive treatment modalities of valve repair for patients who were previously thought to be untreatable,” said Dr. Nicola Corvaja, Interventional Cardiologist at Stamford Hospital who helped spearhead the SHD Center and Valve Clinic. “The gold standard for aortic valve stenosis is open heart surgery, but over the past decade or so new transcatheter techniques have been used successfully for patients who are at high risk for open heart surgery.”

For patients who are not candidates for open heart surgery, a team of experts from Stamford Hospital and Columbia/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital will coordinate a treatment plan, which may involve referring the patient for TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement), an innovative minimally invasive procedure where the aortic valve is replaced without open surgery. Patients eligible for TAVR will be provided seamless access to the TAVR program at Columbia.

For more information about Stamford Hospital’s Heart & Vascular Institute, please visit www.stamfordhospital.org.