Dr Alain Cribier , The Father of TAVR !

Dr Dipti Itchhsporia, President of the American College of Cardiology interviewed the legend , Dr Alain Cribier at ACC 22 on the 20th anniversary of TAVR , the Non surgical valve therapy for severe aortic stenosis.

It was an amazing interview listening to his arduous journey of experimenting 3 years in animal lab followed by performing TAVR via trans septal approach on his first patient who was critically ill and was literally dying . To everyone’s surprise the patient in Cardiogenic shock recovered going off of pressors immediately . Overjoyed with success , Dr Cribier cried when he got into his car that evening as he realized , history had just been created . Next day the patient was giving interviews to the press and ready to go home . With severe resistance from the medical community for his “ experimental procedure “ , Dr Cribier had to wait a full year before he could perform a second TAVR on another sick patient only on humanitarian grounds. He then continued to perform on a total of 40 patients all of whom had been declined surgical option achieving success each time .

Finally University of Rouen in France realized that this was a paradigm shift in management of Severe Aortic stenosis and trials began with Edwards Lifesciences investing into Dr Cribier project and the rest is history .

At the conclusion of his interview, I could hardly hold my tears as the entire audience gave Dr Cribier a standing ovation for his innovative disruptive ideas that have changed management of Aortic Valve Stenosis for good. To this date , 728,000 TAVR procedures have been performed world wide with Edwards LifeSciences and Medtronic Aortic Valves .

Dr Cribier ‘s message to the scientists was to first find the unmet clinical need for the new technology but always keep patient’s best interest in mind . Then collect scientific data so you can share with your peers. The scientific community may even call you crazy when innovative ideas are introduced but believe in your self and never get discouraged by failure , persevere and continue to find solutions ! #drsuneja, #tavr, #cardiotwitter, #Medtronic, #EdwardsLifesciences, #innovation, #aorticstenosis, #ACC22