Current evidence on the safety and efficacy of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) for aortic stenosis is adequate to support the use of this procedure provided that standard arrangements are in place for clinical governance, consent and audit.
Details of all patients should be entered into the UK TAVI registry managed by the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research. Contact bartshealth.nicor-generalenquiries@nhs.net for details. Adverse events should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Patient selection should be carried out by an experienced multidisciplinary team, which must include interventional cardiologists experienced in the procedure, cardiac surgeons, an expert in cardiac imaging and, when appropriate, a cardiac anaesthetist and a specialist in elderly medicine. The multidisciplinary team should determine the risk level for each patient and the TAVI device most suitable for them.
During the consent process patients should be told about all treatment options and their advantages and disadvantages.
TAVI is a technically challenging procedure that should only be done in specialised centres and only by clinicians and teams with special training and experience in complex endovascular interventions. Units doing this procedure should have both cardiac and vascular surgical support for the emergency treatment of complications and subsequent patient care.