TAVR is not the ‘beginning of the end’ for aortic stenosis open heart surgery
November 4, 2021
New Patient Appointment Accepting Virtual Visits or 214-645-8000
Dharam Kumbhani, M.D., is the Section Chief/Director of Interventional Cardiology and an Associate Professor of Medicine in UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Department of Internal Medicine. He is also the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Clements University Hospital. He specializes in interventional cardiology.
Dr. Kumbhani earned his medical degree with honors at the University of Mumbai. He earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology at Harvard University before completing an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and cardiovascular training at the Cleveland Clinic. He then completed fellowships in interventional cardiology and advanced structural and endovascular interventions and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he was also an instructor in cardiology.
He brings a strong background in advanced interventional cardiology techniques to UT Southwestern. His clinical practice specializes in transradial coronary interventions, percutaneous valve technologies, peripheral vascular interventions, and other adult structural heart disease interventions.
Dr. Kumbhani is also internationally recognized in the field of outcomes-based and quality-of-care research. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 articles in medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Circulation, among others. He has received numerous grants for his research, including from the American Heart Association. He is an elected member of the American College of Epidemiology, the Sigma Xi Research Society, and the U.K.’s Royal College of Physicians.
He is an Associate Editor of Circulation and serves on the Editorial board of Cardiosource for the American College of Cardiology. He served as Co-Chair for the 2017 Expert Consensus Document on Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.
Interventional cardiologist Dharam Kumbhani, M.D., doesn’t settle for the traditional treatment options available to patients with complex heart and vascular problems.
A specialist in cutting-edge minimally invasive procedures such as transradial angioplasty to treat coronary artery disease, valve repair for aortic stenosis, and stent-based interventions for patients with peripheral vascular disease, Dr. Kumbhani offers procedures that, while still rare at many U.S. hospitals, promise quicker recovery compared to standard methods.
“We can provide several state-of-the-art treatment options to our patients – especially patients who aren’t good candidates for open-heart surgery – with minimal recovery times,” he says.
For example, he performs transradial angioplasty, which uses a patient’s wrist instead of the groin as the incision point and has a much lower rate of bleeding and faster recovery time.
In addition, he is part of the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) team at UT Southwestern Medical Center, which provides aortic valve replacement to patients without open surgery. TAVR offers a new option to many patients who aren’t surgical candidates and may otherwise not receive any treatment.
Dr. Kumbhani also sees patients with various cardiac structural abnormalities or defects, many of which may need a nonsurgical intervention. He cares for patients through his outpatient clinic, which serves patients with heart, valve, and vascular problems.
An epidemiologist as well as a cardiologist, Dr. Kumbhani has conducted wide-ranging research on quality of care and outcomes in patients with various heart and vascular problems. His research focus mirrors his clinical practice: He looks at care of patients with heart attack or chest pain, complex angioplasties, and peripheral vascular disease. He recently published research that was instrumental in highlighting the importance of medications such as statins in preventing repeat procedures and amputations in patients with peripheral vascular disease.
Dr. Kumbhani also offers minimally invasive, stent-based procedures to his peripheral vascular disease (PVD) patients to reduce pain and avoid amputation and invasive bypass surgeries.
“I enjoy my practice,” he says. “Seeing such a wide range of patients and working with a wide range of techniques allows me to stay up to date with the whole heart-care scene, not just a narrow facet of it.”
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New Patient Appointment Accepting Virtual Visits or 214-645-8000