Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement — An Example of Cognitive Bias?

A German registry study suggests a sharp increase in overall aortic valve procedures between 2007 and 2013, although in-hospital mortality risk with TAVR remains over 5%.

Unquestionably, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has become an invaluable option for elderly and inoperable patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis. To learn how the availability of TAVR has affected clinical practice, researchers retrospectively studied administrative coding data from a German nationwide database of hospital patients' diagnoses and procedures. The data comprised 55,992 isolated surgical aortic valve replacement procedures and 32,581 TAVR procedures between 2007 and 2013.

The number of TAVR interventions increased from 144 in 2007 to 9147 in 2013, whereas the number of surgical aortic valve replacement procedures dropped only slightly from 8622 to 7048. Patients receiving TAVR were older than the surgical pati…

Reviewing Author

Beat J. Meyer, MD

Disclosures

Leadership positions in professional societiesBern Heart Foundation (President); International Academy of Medicine, Bern, Switzerland (Director)

Beat J. Meyer, MD

Disclosures

Leadership positions in professional societiesBern Heart Foundation (President); International Academy of Medicine, Bern, Switzerland (Director)

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement — An Example of Cognitive Bias?

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Reviewing Author