Structural Heart Disease Program

Structural Heart procedures close to home.

Living with a complex heart condition can make you lose heart. It’s easy to feel like there’s nothing you can do. But now there’s hope. With the first, most comprehensive and the only cardiologist fellowship-trained Structural Heart Disease Program in the Great Lakes Bay Region, we’re leading the way with emerging, minimally invasive treatment options. People who may not qualify for open heart surgery can take heart knowing there are other options to help them improve their quality of life.

Structural Heart Disease Program Services
The Structural Heart Disease Program offers minimally invasive procedures for heart patients:

  • Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) – Individuals with severe aortic stenosis may need an aortic valve replacement. When the aortic valve is not fully open, patients suffer a decrease in blood flow from the heart to the body. While open heart surgery is one way to treat aortic stenosis, many patients are at an increased risk with the surgery. TAVR is a minimally invasive procedure that repairs the narrowed valve by wedging a replacement valve in place, which will expand and push the old valve out of the way.
  • TMVIV – Transcatheter mitral valve‐in‐valve implantation (TMVIV) is an option for patients with mitral prosthetic valve disease who are at high risk for surgical valve replacement.
  • LAAO Implant – To lower risk for stroke, a device is permanently implanted to close the left atrial appendage (LAA), which is the source for a large majority of stroke-causing blood clots in people with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. The LAAO(Left atrial appendage occlusion) Implant helps to prevent the migration of blood clots from the LAA, which will reduce the patient’s risk of stroke.
  • TEER – The Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER) procedure is a minimally invasive technique in which a catheter is used to place a small clip on the edges of a malfunctioning heart valve, effectively closing the gap and restoring its normal function.

In addition, our extraordinary team also provides other structural heart disease procedures including:

  • Percutaneous Aortic and Mitral Valvuloplasty – This procedure uses a balloon to expand abnormally narrow heart valves.
  • Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) closure – This is a catheter-based procedure that closes a hole, in the heart between the top two chambers. In most people, this hole normally closes at birth.
  • Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) closure - A catheter-based procedure that closes a defect, or hole in the heart, between the top two chambers.

Structural Heart Disease Team
Our multidisciplinary team of experts consists of cardiologists, interventionalists, cardiac surgeons, anesthetists, nurses, and technicians (cath and electrophysiology lab, echo and surgical). Together, they work to develop a treatment plan customized for every patient to ensure the best outcomes possible.

If you or your loved one is considered inoperable or moderate to high-risk, our expertise and new, emerging minimally invasive options are not only life-changing. They could be lifesaving. Call us at 989.583.4700 to learn more about the Structural Heart Disease Program at Covenant Center for the Heart.