Confirmed: Redo TAVR with balloon-expandable valves is safe and effective

The authors confirmed that the timing of redo TAVR—within one year of the initial procedure or later than one year—did not seem to make a significant impact on mortality or the risk of stroke.

“We now know that redo TAVR with balloon-expandable valves may be a reasonable treatment for failed TAVR procedures in select patients,” senior author Raj Makkar, MD, a veteran interventional cardiologist and vice president of Cardiovascular Innovation and Intervention at Cedars-Sinai, said in a prepared statement. “This is increasingly important, as the patients treated with TAVR are younger than they were a decade ago, meaning they will likely need a repeat procedure at some point in their lifetime.”

“Our finding that TAVR can be redone safely is yet another step in establishing this as the default technology for aortic valve disease,” added Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, in the same statement.

Co-authors included Martin B. Leon, MD, with the Columbia University Department of Medicine; Samir Kapadia, MD, with Cleveland Clinic; Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, with Mount Sinai Heart; Michael Mack, MD, with Baylor Scott and White; and other leading names in the field of cardiology.

Read the full analysis here.