Transcatheter aortic valve replacement: The year in review 2016

Abstract

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) continued to make major strides in 2016, simultaneously expanding its application to lower risk patients as well as more technically challenging subsets of patients with aortic stenosis (AS). The two major accomplishments this year were the establishment of TAVR as the preferred treatment strategy over surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in intermediate risk patients, and initial signals that TAVR and SAVR may be clinically equivalent in low-risk populations. Meanwhile, there is continued expansion of TAVR to challenging clinical subsets (bicuspid aortic valve [BAV], patients with concomitant advanced coronary artery disease [CAD], and failed surgical bioprostheses), and encouraging initial experiences with newer transcatheter heart valve systems. This paper summarizes the major research studies published on TAVR in 2016.

The association between renal recovery after acute kidney injury and long-term mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement

“…Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a revolutionary, relatively new catheter-based technique for treating patients with severe aortic stenosis who are at high risk for a surgical aortic valve replacement [ 1 ]. In addition, recent studies have also suggested the potential use of TAVR for patients at intermediate [ 2 , 3 ] and low risk [ 4 ], as well as for a subset of patients whose aortic stenosis was more technically challenging to repair surgically [ 5 , 6 ]. Although TAVR is considered less invasive than surgical repair, patients undergoing TAVR usually have more comorbidities [ 7 ].…”