Abstract
Informed Shared Decisions for Patients with Aortic Stenosis
CM Otto.
Keywords: symptomatic aortic stenosis; TAVR; SAVR;
Valve replacement is the only effective treatment for adults with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis. The ideal prosthetic valve would be associated with minimal risk and discomfort at implantation, would have hemodynamics similar to those of a normal valve, would not require anticoagulation, and would be durable for the patient’s lifetime. We are moving closer to this goal, as evidenced by sequential randomized clinical trials of transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR), initially in patients at prohibitive or high estimated risk for death with surgical aortic-valve replacement, then in patients at intermediate risk, and now — in the trials by Mack et al.