Commentary: When you get to a fork in the road, take it

[摘要] Without treatment, severe symptomatic aortic stenosis is fatal. And the sole effective treatment—aortic valve replacement—only became available within the lifetime of many patients diagnosed with aortic stenosis today. For decades, open-heart surgery was the only way to replace a stenotic aortic valve, but more recently, driven by the realization that many patients with advanced age, comorbidities, and/or frailty were not being offered surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR), transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as an alternative, creating a new fork in the decision process: should the patient have a surgical or a transcatheter procedure.

[学科分类] 心脏病和心血管学