Folkehelseinstiuttet: New treatment for heart valve increased four times in five years
More and more patients are getting new heart valves without open surgery. The number of new treatments for heart valve surgery has increased by four times in the last five years, according to the Norwegian Public Hearth Agency´s (Folkehelseinstituttets) Heart and Cardiovascular Registry (Hjerte- og karregisteret) for 2017.
The Hearth and Cardiovascular Register was established in 2012 and contains data from the Norwegian Patient Register (Norsk pasientregister) and the Death Register (Dødsårsaksregisteret), and eight associated national medical quality registers.
The Hearth and Cardiovascular Register for 2017 shows, among other things, that catheter-based treatment of heart valve has increased. This is a relatively new treatment method. Otherwise, the statistics show that the rate of heart attack has decreased, while the total number of patients treated for heart and cardiovascular conditions in hospitals has increased in the recent years.
Get a new heart valve without open surgery
If the valve between the heart and the aorta becomes tight and must be treated, it can be done with traditional open-heart surgery or using a newer technique which states that an artificial flap is inserted through a catheter that is led to the heart via a vein. In Norway, this latter method has been in use since 2008, and is called percutaneous transluminal or transapical implantation of biological aortic valve prosthesis (TAVR). This method is most commonly used in patients who have a high risk of complications in open heart surgery, such as elderly and fragile patients.
The catheter-based treatment for aortic stenosis continues to increase year by year. There were more than four times as many patients who performed TAVR in 2017 as in 2012. The number of patients increased from 143 to 631 in 2017. Over the same five-year period, the number of traditional surgical procedures of aortic valve prosthesis (SAVR) decreased from 1139 to 972.
Less heart attacks in hospitals
The total number of patients registered in hospitals with conditions related to the cardiovascular system has increased somewhat over the last few years. By 2017, 160 264 women and 178 684 men were registered into the Hearth and Cardiovascular Register. However, the number of patients with myocardial infarction continues to decline. By 2017, 11 210 patients were diagnosed with a major diagnosis of myocardial infarction, which is almost 200 fewer than it was in 2016.