[TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE REPLACEMENT - CURRENT STATE]

Trans-catheter aortic valve implantation is a relatively novel procedure first performed in 2002, which has undergone rapid development since then. Nowadays, it is performed in many medical centers throughout the world. The main indication for the procedure is treatment of severe symptomatic aortic valve stenosis. At the outset, the procedure was indicated for very sick patients with prohibitive surgical risk. Nevertheless, broad employment of this procedure, rapid development of the medical equipment required for it, and improvement in the skill of the medical personnel involved in it, eventually led to its elevation to a different grade. Currently, there is evidence that this procedure could be better than the surgical intervention in a broad patient population, by no means the sickest of them. This paper reviews the medical literature on the procedure including the relevant medical equipment, different modes of its deployment, the main complications of the procedure, its main indications and contraindications, and the outcome of the patients undergoing it, as based on the studies performed to this end.