[Catheter-based aortic valve substitution. Initial experiences with stent valve implantation]

Recent years have seen the introduction of catheter-based aortic valve substitution with stent valves to treat aortic valve stenosis in patients who were deemed inoperable via conventional open heart surgery. We here report our initial experience.

Register-based study with prospective registration of prespecified parameters. A total of 26 patients were treated with an aortic stent valve, 12 via transfemoral (TFA-AVI) and 14 via transapical (TAP-AVI) access. In the TFA-AVI group, 75% were women and the average age was 85 4.5 years; in the TAP-AVI group, 71% were women and the average age was 79 8.4 years.

In the TFA-AVI group, successful stent valve implantation was performed in 9/12 (75%) and TAP-AVI in 13/14 (93%) patients. Mortality after 30 days was 25% in the TFA-AVI and 7% in the TAP-AVI group. The aortic valve area increased from 0.6 0.13 cm(2) to 1.6 0.39 (2) in the TFA-AVI group and from 0.7 0.2 (2) to 1.6 0.37 (2) in the TAP-AVI group. 91% of patients showed clinical improvement after treatment.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation of conventional unresectable patients requires close cooperation between different specialities. The treatment seems to be a realistic alternative to medical treatment for inoperable patients and may even be used in operable high-risk patients.