Yale New Haven Health Heart & Vascular Center

Among our advanced valve procedures are mitral valve repair with robotic surgery, minimally invasive mitral valve repair using MitraClip^® and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Yale New Haven Hospital is the only hospital in New England to provide robotic-assisted mitral valve repair, a procedure performed with the da Vinci Xi^® robotic surgical system. It is also one of few hospitals in the United States offering the AVNeo™ (Ozaki) procedure, which uses a patient’s own tissue to create a new aortic valve. The minimally invasive TAVR and transcatheter mitral valve replacement procedures replace a valve without open-heart surgery. Expert cardiac physicians at Yale New Haven Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital perform the most TAVRs in Connecticut, with superior results. We also offer valve-sparing root replacement and bicuspid aortic valve repair and clinical trials for transcatheter tricuspid valve therapy. (All cited trademarks are the property of their respective owners.)

Heart valve patients receive our patient-centered approach to care that is focused on a successful surgery or procedure. Heart and Vascular Center nurse coordinators work with patients, their families and the physician teams.

We offer a procedure called aortic valve neo-cuspitization (AVNeo™, also known as Ozaki procedure). The diseased aortic valve is removed and a new valve is made from the patient’s own pericardial tissue. During this process, the new leaflets are individually measured for the patient and prepared using the AVNeo™ system. The three new leaflets are then connected with sutures to the patient’s preserved aortic valve ring. Benefits of the reconstructed heart valve include improved blood flow compared to conventional artificial heart valves and unlikely need for a permanent pacemaker. This procedure is especially suited for patients with either aortic valve stenosis or regurgitation under age 60 who do not want a prosthesis valve made from synthetic materials. This procedure also relieves most patients from having to take blood-thinner medication (anti-coagulant).