Published online Apr 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i4.167
Peer-review started: October 30, 2014
First decision: December 12, 2014
Revised: February 6, 2015
Accepted: February 10, 2015
Article in press: February 12, 2015
Published online: April 26, 2015
Processing time: 173 Days and 15 Hours
The field of percutaneous valvular interventions is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing within interventional cardiology. Percutaneous procedures focusing on aortic and mitral valve replacement or interventional treatment as well as techniques of percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation have already reached worldwide clinical acceptance and routine interventional procedure status. Although techniques of percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation have been described just a decade ago, two stent-mounted complementary devices were successfully introduced and more than 3000 of these procedures have been performed worldwide. In contrast, percutaneous treatment of tricuspid valve dysfunction is still evolving on a much earlier level and has so far not reached routine interventional procedure status. Taking into account that an “interdisciplinary challenging”, heterogeneous population of patients previously treated by corrective, semi-corrective or palliative surgical procedures is growing inexorably, there is a rapidly increasing need of treatment options besides redo-surgery. Therefore, the review intends to reflect on clinical expansion of percutaneous pulmonary and tricuspid valve procedures, to update on current devices, to discuss indications and patient selection criteria, to report on clinical results and finally to consider future directions.
Core tip: The field of percutaneous valve implantation/repair is rapidly developing within interventional cardiology. Percutaneous procedures focusing on aortic, mitral or pulmonary valve dysfunction have almost reached daily routine. In contrast, percutaneous treatment of tricuspid valve dysfunction is still evolving on a much earlier level. Taking into account that an “interdisciplinary challenging” population of patients previously treated by corrective, semi-corrective or palliative surgery is growing inexorably, there is an increasing need of options besides redo-surgery. This review intends to report on clinical application of pulmonary and tricuspid valve procedures. It updates on current devices, patient selection criteria, results and future directions.