Commentary: Transcatheter aortic valve –in–transcatheter aortic valve replacement—Are we learning more and knowing less?

With both Edwards Sapien 3 (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, Calif) and Medtronic CoreValve Evolut R (Medtronic, Minneapolis, Minn) valves now commercially available for use in low-risk patients, transcatheter aortic valve replacement will quickly become the procedure of choice for virtually every patient with severe aortic stenosis, independent of age, risk, or valve pathology (save for endocarditis). As its use increases in those with longer life expectancy, some valves will inevitably fail. On the heels of previous studies in which their group evaluated the hemodynamic properties of transcatheter valves placed both as isolated implants1 and inside bioprosthetic surgical valves,2 in this issue of the Journal, Hatoum and colleagues3 report the flow characteristics across 6 specific simulated transcatheter aortic valve –in–transcatheter aortic valve configurations of 23-mm Edwards Sapien 3 and 23-mm and 26-mm CoreValve prostheses.
Source: The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery - Category: Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research