In-Hospital Mortality after Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty

With increasing life expectancies, the burden of aortic valve disease continues to be a major contributor to morbidity and mortality, affecting millions of elderly people [1,2]. Aortic stenosis (AS) begins with a long asymptomatic period [3]. Once symptomatic, survival becomes poor unless the outflow obstruction is relieved [4-6]. Retrospective studies have shown that if the patient experiences symptoms of angina the medial survival is 5 years, syncope 3 years, and heart failure 2 years [4,7,8]. Surgical and Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) have been shown to improve symptoms and overall survival in patients with severe, symptomatic AS [9,10]. However, there still remains a group of patients that are not appropriate candidates for either procedure due to severe comorbidities and/or hemodynamic instability [11,12].