Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Infective Endocarditis: Current Data and Implications on Prophylaxis and...

During the last decade, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has become a widespread procedure for the treatment of symptomatic severe aortic stenosis in patients with high surgical risk. In conjunction with the growing experience, the adverse outcomes of TAVI have arisen, including transcatheter aortic valve infective endocarditis (TAVIE). Although rare, TAVIE has been shown as a major etiology of transcatheter aortic valve failure and its magnitude is expected to increase as TAVI will become more frequent, and long term follow-ups will accumulate. To date, large scale TAVI cohorts have restrictively addressed TAVIE-related data and details regarding TAVIE course and management are available only in sporadic case reports, which have been recently collected and published. In this review, we present a case of TAVIE from our institution and analyze the available data regarding prevalence, clinical presentation and microbiology of TAVIE, as depicted from the current literature. We discuss TAVIE treatment and prophylaxis strategies, which are expected to gain growing attention in the years to come, as TAVI will be established as a key procedure in aortic stenosis management.