Transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Aortic stenosis is the most important valvular heart disease affecting the elderly population. Surgical aortic valve replacement is the mainstay of treatment, although a substantial number of patients are considered high risk for surgery. Many of these patients do not undergo surgery and have poor outcomes from medically treated symptomatic, severe aortic stenosis. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) provides a promising treatment option for some of these patients. Several devices are under investigation. The Edwards Sapien valve (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, CA) and the CoreValve (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN) have the largest human experience to date. Initial data suggest that these devices have an acceptable safety profile and provide excellent hemodynamic relief of aortic stenosis. The Edwards Sapien valve is currently under investigation in the United States in the PARTNER (Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valve) trial in high-risk surgical or inoperable patients; TAVI is available for clinical use in both Canada and Europe. TAVI is not used in low- or intermediate-risk surgical patients; however, future studies may prove its applicability in these subsets. The major complications of TAVI include access site-related problems and device malpositioning/migration. There are several new-generation prosthetic valves and delivery systems designed to be low profile and repositionable. Technical advances and refinement of the implantation methods may make TAVI even safer and ultimately a better treatment option, not only for patients with high surgical risk but also for those with moderate or low risk.