10News Features New Aortic Heart Valve Implant Available at Scripps

When John Rufo’s daughter gets married in August, he will walk her down the aisle and dance with her at the reception thanks in part to a small, innovative aortic replacement valve implanted in his heart as part of a clinical trial at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. 

Patients like Rufo with severe aortic regurgitation but unable to undergo open heart surgery had few, if any, options to fix the potentially life-threatening problem, Scripps Clinic interventional cardiologist Curtiss Stinis, MD, told 10News recently. 

But that has changed now that the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) device has received approval for commercial use in the United States.