10 jaar transkatheter-aortaklepvervanging

• Aortic valve stenosis is a common heart valve disorder in adults. Its prevalence increases with age and is therefore especially seen in older patients.
• Thirty to forty per cent of patients with symptomatic aortic valve stenosis are not referred for surgical valve replacement because of high age, their medical history or comorbidities.
• In 2002, the first transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) was carried out in an inoperable patient. Since 2012, TAVI has been included in international guidelines for heart valve diseases as a treatment strategy in symptomatic patients at a high risk of complications and a life expectancy of more than one year.
• Decision-making about which treatment is preferable takes a multidisciplinary approach.
• Important complications of TAVI are bleeding, renal function disorder, stroke, conduction abnormalities, valve insufficiency and death.
• TAVI procedures are carried out in the Netherlands only in cardiac centres in which specific expertise is present in the areas of structural cardiovascular disease.
• Scientific research is important for further developments and improvements.

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: none declared.