Tobis JM and Abudayyeh I
The new field of structural heart disease has gathered significant momentum in recent years. While the bulk of intervention in cardiology still, by far, involve coronary intervention, structural interventions now rival the results of open heart surgery. We review in this paper some of the devices available for treatment of a variety of structural and congenital cardiac conditions as well as acquired valvular abnormalities. Transcatheter treatment offers advantages over surgical intervention in recovery time, improved patient satisfaction, lower procedural risk and avoidance of cardio-pulmonary bypass especially in high-risk patients. With operator experience, the procedural risks also improve compared to open surgical repairs.
