Morton Plant Mease Hosts Health Seminar, "Advances in Heart Valve Surgery"

CLEARWATER, Fla., (April 14, 2014) - Morton Plant Mease invites the community to attend a seminar on the latest technology available for heart valve surgery, including the breakthrough treatment, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). 

Cardiovascular surgeon Joshua Rovin, MD, will present on “Advances in Heart Valve Surgery” from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday May 16 at the Cheek Powell Heart & Vascular Pavilion, Community Room, Second Floor, 455 Pinellas St., Clearwater.

TAVR is an option for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. Aortic stenosis is a disease process that affects the aortic valve. Symptoms can include chest pain, breathlessness, and weakness. One in three patients cannot tolerate open-heart surgery. In late stages of the disease, the valve does not open and close properly. This causes the heart to work harder to push blood through the calcified aortic valve and eventually the heart’s muscles weaken, increasing the patient’s risk of heart failure.

Dr. Rovin is a physician member of the Morton Plant Hospital Valve Clinic team. He also will explain who might be a candidate for certain procedures and how people can learn more.

For seminar pre-registration, call (727) 953-6877. For information on the Morton Plant Hospital Valve Clinic, call (855) 448-2583 or log on to www.MPMHealth.com/ValveClinic.

Morton Plant Hospital Valve Clinic 
Morton Plant Hospital’s TAVR program is coordinated through the Morton Plant Hospital Valve Clinic, a multi-disciplinary team of cardiovascular surgeons, cardiologists, and cardiac anesthesiologists focused on working together to determine the best medical or surgical options for each patient. In 2012, Morton Plant Hospital was the first in the Tampa Bay area to perform an advanced surgical procedure for severe symptomatic aortic stenosis called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). Since then, the Morton Plant Hospital Valve Clinic Team has continued to participate at a national level on advances in TAVR treatment including:

• First hospital in Tampa Bay to use both the transapical (small incision between the ribs of the lower left chest) and transaortic (small incision on the upper chest) approaches instead of a groin incision for TAVR.
• Participated in TAVR PARTNER II Clinical Trial to study second generation Edward’s SAPIEN valve and delivery system designs.
• Morton Plant Hospital currently is participating in the PARTNER II SAPIEN 3 intermediate risk clinical research trial involving the third generation Edwards replacement valve and delivery system. This nonrandomized study is evaluating the S3 valve in the intermediate risk patient population (patients with an STS risk of 4-8).
• Completion of more than 200 TAVR procedures with excellent outcomes documented over two years.
• First hospital in Tampa Bay to offer both the Edwards Sapien and the Medronic CoreValves to treat patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis.

The team includes: Michael Barry, MD; Gregory Girgenti, MD; Todd Kovach, MD; Lang Lin, MD; John Ofenloch, MD; Joshua Rovin, MD; Douglas Spriggs, MD; and Saul Tuchman, MD.