Advances in valve replacement

Aortic valve replacement is becoming more common with almost 5,000 aortic valve replacements being carried out on the NHS in England between April 2011 and April 2012. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an established alternative to surgical valve replacement in the management of calcified severe aortic stenosis in those with co-morbidities or adverse features (advanced age, impaired left ventricular function), or in those where...

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Drug-eluting balloons more successful than other treament in coronary restenosis

Drug-Eluting Balloons (DEBs) are conventional semi-compliant angioplasty balloons covered with an antirestenotic drug which is released into the vessel wall during inflation of the balloon, usually at nominal pressures with a specific minimal inflation time. The active substance on the Drug-Eluting Balloons should be lipophilic enough to have a high absorption rate through the vessel wall to compensate for the short period of contact between the...

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Safer alternatives to conventional coronary artery bypass (CCAB)

Adverse clinical consequences associated with conventional coronary artery bypass graft surgery have largely been attributed to cardiopulmonary bypass circuit (CPB), hypothermic cardiac arrest, aortic cannulation and cross-clamping. Since the introduction of OPCAB for coronary artery disease, numerous studies have been published to evaluate the impact of OPCAB surgery compared with conventional coronary artery bypass graft surgery. However, subsequent...

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CABG or PCI for CAD?

Recent years have seen an ongoing debate as to whether heart surgery using coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) or the non-surgical procedure of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the most appropriate revascularisation strategy for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), the most common form of cardiovascular disease. During PCI, a cardiologist feeds a deflated balloon or other device on a catheter from the inguinal femoral artery or...

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