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Updated: Feb 24, 2026
Upper-extremity Approach for Secondary Access in Transfemoral Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation
Published on: August 8, 2025
Clinical Outcomes With a Repositionable Self-Expanding Transcatheter Aortic Valve Prosthesis: The International
Eberhard Grube1, Nicolas M Van Mieghem2, Sabine Bleiziffer3
1Department of Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Background:
Clinical outcomes in large patient populations from real-world clinical practice with a next-generation self-expanding transcatheter aortic valve are lacking.
Objectives:
This study sought to document the clinical and device performance outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with a next-generation, self-expanding transcatheter heart valve (THV) system in patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS) in routine clinical practice.
Methods:
The FORWARD (CoreValve Evolut R FORWARD) study is a prospective, single-arm, multinational, multicenter, observational study. An independent clinical events committee adjudicated safety endpoints based on Valve Academic Research Consortium-2 definitions. An independent echocardiographic core laboratory evaluated all echocardiograms. From January 2016 to December 2016, TAVR with the next-generation self-expanding THV was attempted in 1,038 patients with symptomatic, severe AS at 53 centers on 4 continents.
Results:
Mean age was 81.8 ± 6.2 years, 64.9% were women, the mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality was 5.5 ± 4.5%, and 33.9% of patients were deemed frail. The repositioning feature of the THV was applied in 25.8% of patients. A single valve was implanted in the proper anatomic location in 98.9% of patients. The mean aortic valve gradient was 8.5 ± 5.6 mm Hg, and moderate or severe aortic regurgitation was 1.9% at discharge. All-cause mortality was 1.9%, and disabling stroke occurred in 1.8% at 30 days. The expected-to-observed early surgical mortality ratio was 0.35. A pacemaker was implanted in 17.5% of patients.
Conclusions:
TAVR using the next-generation THV is clinically safe and effective for treating older patients with severe AS at increased operative risk. (CoreValve Evolut R FORWARD Study [FORWARD]; NCT02592369).
