Written by Savanna Brooks, practice manager, Ernst Cardiovascular Center

Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital celebrated the 400th Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement surgery on Tuesday, Feb. 18, performed by Luay Sayed, M.D.,  and Franco Fazzalari, M.D. The team of cath lab team members, cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, and valve clinic coordinators gathered after the weekly valve conference discussion to recognize their achievement spanning five years since the program launched.

A "TAVR procedure" stands for "Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement," which is a minimally invasive medical procedure that replaces a diseased aortic valve in the heart with a new artificial valve, delivered through a catheter inserted into a blood vessel, without the need for open-chest surgery; it's often used for patients with severe aortic stenosis who may be too high-risk for traditional valve replacement surgery.

The first encounter patients have when referred for a TAVR evaluation is with the clinic coordinators, Jaclyn and Kaitlyn. Their friendly and welcoming demeanor start the process of evaluation and data collection, scheduling testing and appointments, to then be discussed by the clinical team to determine the best valve type and size. Interventional cardiologists Dr. Sayed and Michael Tucciarone, M.D., partner with cardiovascular surgeons George Comas, M.D., and Dr. Fazzalari to perform these cases.

The Troy Structural Heart Program is the fastest growing program in the area and highly regarded for their top quality within the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry. Troy received 2 stars from the STS for their star rating in 2024, which is an outstanding achievement — there are no 3-star programs in Michigan and there are a very small number of 3-star programs throughout the country.

Congratulations Troy, on the 400th TAVR procedure!