Journal Article

Effect of Availability of Transcatheter Aortic-Valve Replacement on Clinical Practice

Kaier, Klaus, Zehender, Manfred, Vach, Werner, Bode, Christoph, Reinöhl, Jochen, Frankenstein, Lutz, Beyersdorf, Friedhelm, Reinecke, Holger, Schmoor, Claudia, Cribier, Alain

2015

Overview

In Germany, the use of TAVR increased substantially between 2007 and 2013, whereas the use of surgical aortic-valve replacement decreased modestly. Patients undergoing TAVR were older and at higher operative risk. Mortality decreased over time in both groups. Surgical aortic-valve replacement was a major clinical advance in the 1960s 1 and offered a cure for aortic stenosis, a condition for which no disease-modifying pharmacologic therapy is available. Surgical replacement remained the only treatment option until 2007, when devices for transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR) were approved. 2 Since then, TAVR has become established not only as an effective therapy for patients for whom surgery is not an option 3 but also as an alternative for high-risk patients. 4 The introduction of TAVR has led to questions about the effect of this relatively new approach on current clinical practice and its effect on surgical . . .

• Publisher: Massachusetts Medical Society
• Subject: Age Factors / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / Aortic Valve - surgery / Aortic Valve Stenosis - surgery / Catheters / Coronary vessels / Data processing / Female / Germany / Heart / Heart surgery / Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation - methods / Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation - mortality / Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation - trends / Hospital Mortality / Humans / Male / Middle Aged / Mortality / Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement - mortality / Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement - trends / Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement - utilization / Transplants & implants