Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital marks one year anniversary of successful TAVR surgeries

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital organized a celebratory luncheon Friday for the cardiac medical team and patients who’ve successfully undergone a relatively new heart surgery technique called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR).

“This is a sort of groundbreaking change in the treatment of this aortic valve problem,” said Dr. Joe Aragon, Director of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital’s Cardiac Cath Lab. “Patients that previously would’ve only been eligible to have surgery would now have this procedure through the groin that has a much shorter recovery time and a lower risk of complication.”

The less invasive procedure is used on elderly patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis who are too high risk for the more traumatic and traditional technique of open heart surgery.

94-year-old Robert “Bob” Moran of Goleta is one of dozens of local patients who successfully underwent the procedure that was first performed locally in September of 2015.

“I was only in the hospital five days and when I came out I was back to normal, so to speak, and doing the many things that I usually always do,” Moran said.

We’ll have more on this groundbreaking procedure tonight on NewsChannel 3 at 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm.