Your cardiologist will use biological tissue valves (produced from cow or pig heart tissue) to replace your damaged valve during transcatheter aortic valve implantation surgery. On rare occasions, your physician may replace the inactive valve with a new one.
Your cardiologist will create a tiny incision in your chest, through which a catheter—a flexible hollow tube—is inserted. A catheter will often be inserted into your blood vessels, usually in the chest or groin region. The physician will direct the catheter to the position of the aortic valve in the heart using an X-ray or other image-guiding tube.
