{"id":2144,"date":"2022-05-04T23:50:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T23:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=2144"},"modified":"2025-06-03T21:05:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T21:05:45","slug":"tmvr-update-dr-steve-bolling","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/tmvr-update-dr-steve-bolling\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon Q&#038;A: What&#8217;s The Latest Update For Non-Invasive TMVR?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The impact of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for aortic stenosis patients has been revolutionary during the past 10 years.\u00a0 TAVR does not require an incision to the patient&#8217;s chest or ribs.\u00a0 A TAVR procedure does not require the use of the heart-lung machine.\u00a0 And, TAVR patients are often in the hospital for only one day.<\/p>\n<p>With the success of TAVR, patients with mitral valve disease are asking questions about the use of transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr) and transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR). For example, I just received an email from Henry who asked me, &#8220;Hi Adam, What is the latest update for transcatheter mitral valve treatments?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To answer that question, I interviewed Dr. Steve Bolling who is a leading mitral valve surgeon.\u00a0 During his career, Dr. Bolling has performed over 7,000 cardiac procedures of which more than 5,000 operations involved heart valve repair or heart valve replacement therapies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RpiH4P7E5xQ?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About TMVR From Dr. Bolling<\/h2>\n<p>Dr. Bolling shared many important points for patients during this interview. Here are the highlights I jotted down:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to Dr. Bolling, the anatomy and function of the mitral valve is more complex than the aortic valve.\u00a0 As a result, developing a transcatheter device has been more challenging for physicians and medical companies.\u00a0 As Dr. Bolling states, &#8220;One would think you could just take that TAVR, turn it upside down, ta-da, mitral valve. No, it\u2019s not that easy. The aortic valve, when you think of it, it\u2019s really just a door. It opens because the pressure is higher and closes because the pressure is lower, but the mitral valve is really way more complex than that. Yes, it opens and closes but also has to do with the twist mechanics of the heart and the power of the heart. It\u2019s not just as easy as turning a TAVR upside down into the mitral position.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2152\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/dr-steve-bolling-275.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Steve Bolling\" width=\"228\" height=\"257\" \/><br \/>\nDr. Steve Bolling (Mitral Valve Expert)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>While TAVR leverages the calcium build-up in the diseased valve to anchor a TAVR device into position, the mitral valve does not typically get calcified.\u00a0 As Dr. Bolling states, &#8220;The other problem, of course, is that with TAVR, when you have calcified aortic stenosis, you put in a TAVR and it pushes against the calcium, it stays there. Mitral valve doesn\u2019t get calcified like that in a general sense.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2153 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/calcified-aortic-valve-tavr.jpg\" alt=\"Calcified Aortic Valve for TAVR\" width=\"650\" height=\"362\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr) using the MitraClip is helping select patients that experience degenerative and\/or functional mitral regurgitation. Dr. Bolling states, &#8220;One of the devices&#8230; The MitraClip has become very good. We use that as a tool in our mitral valve clinic. It\u2019s an excellent tool for very select patients.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2150 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/MitraClip-Clasping-Abbott.jpg\" alt=\"MitraClip Clasp\" width=\"650\" height=\"420\" \/>MitraClip for Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Given the complex nature of the mitral valve, Dr. Bolling believes that transcatheter techniques might take up to 25 years of research and development to perfect the treatment of variant forms of mitral valve disease.<\/li>\n<li>Clinical trials that evaluate the safety-and-efficacy of TMVr and TMVR devices are critical initiatives to advance transcatheter mitral valve therapies.<\/li>\n<li>At Michigan Medicine, there are several clinical trials for mitral valve and tricuspid valve patients including transcatheter clips, annuloplasty rings, chords and replacements. Those research studies include the REPAIR MR Study, the PASCAL Clasp Study, the INTREPID TMVR Clinical Trial and the EVOQUE Clinical Trial.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Many Thanks Dr. Bolling!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our patient community, many thanks to Dr. Steven Bolling for taking the time to share his clinical research and experience with us.<\/p>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the hearing impaired members of our community, I have provided a written transcript of my interview with Dr. Bolling below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"class_list":["post-2144","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-medical-technology"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5871,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2144\/revisions\/5871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}