TAVI vs Open Valve Surgery for Heart Valve Disease: How the Approach Is Chosen

The envelope from the cardiology department is thinner than expected. Inside, a single appointment: a joint clinic, two specialists, forty minutes. A woman in her late seventies reads it twice at her kitchen table. She has known for a year that her aortic valve is narrowing. She has felt it on the stairs, in the pause before the second flight. What she has not known, until now, is that there are two quite different ways to fix it, and that the meeting is about choosing between them.

The question of tavi vs open heart valve surgery has become one of the most common conversations in heart clinics, and one of the most misunderstood. Friends offer opinions. Search results shout. One approach sounds gentler, the other sounds more thorough, and both descriptions are half right.

This explainer walks through what each procedure actually involves, how specialist teams weigh the trade-offs, and what the days and weeks afterward usually look like, using the evidence rather than the folklore.

TAVI vs open heart valve surgery: why it is a team decision, not a menu

Start with what the two approaches have in common, because it is more than people expect. Both treat aortic stenosis, the narrowing of the valve between the heart’s main pumping chamber and the aorta, the body’s largest artery. Both replace the stiff, calcified valve with a new one. Both are performed by teams who do this work week in, week out. The difference lies in the route taken to the valve and in what each route makes possible.

TAVI stands for transcatheter aortic valve implantation. In the United States the same procedure is usually called TAVR, transcatheter aortic valve replacement; the two terms describe the same thing. A catheter is a thin, flexible tube guided through a blood vessel to the heart. Open surgery, often abbreviated SAVR for surgical aortic valve replacement, reaches the valve through the chest and replaces it by hand.

Neither is a default. The NHS describes TAVI as one option that a specialist team may recommend after weighing a person’s general health and the shape of their heart, and the Mayo Clinic frames the decision in the same way. The phrase you will hear is “heart team”: a cardiologist who performs catheter procedures, a cardiac surgeon, an imaging specialist and often an anesthesiologist, sitting together to review the same scans.

Why so much ceremony? Because the factors pull in different directions. A frail person may recover more easily from a catheter procedure, yet have a valve shape that suits surgery better. A younger person might prefer to avoid a chest incision, yet benefit from a valve type that can only be placed surgically. The job of the team is to hold all of this at once, then explain it in plain language so the decision is genuinely shared.

How does TAVI actually work?

Picture the femoral artery, the large blood vessel at the top of the thigh. In most TAVI procedures this is the front door. A small puncture is made in the groin, and a catheter carrying a folded replacement valve is guided upward through the aorta to the heart, watched the whole way on X-ray imaging. The heart keeps beating throughout. No heart-lung machine is needed.

The new valve is a tissue valve, made from animal tissue mounted on a metal mesh frame. When it reaches the diseased valve, it is expanded, either by a small balloon or by the frame’s own spring, and it pushes the old valve leaflets aside, wedging itself into place. Within moments it begins opening and closing with each heartbeat. The Mayo Clinic describes the old valve as remaining in place, flattened against the vessel wall, rather than being removed.

Not every artery is a suitable road. When the leg vessels are too narrow or too twisted, teams have alternative entry points: through a small incision in the chest wall, through a vessel under the collarbone, or occasionally through a neck vessel. The Cleveland Clinic lists these as recognized alternatives, chosen on the basis of a detailed CT scan taken beforehand.

Anesthesia varies. Some centers use a general anesthetic; many now use sedation with local numbing at the puncture site, so the patient is drowsy but breathing on their own. The NHS notes that the procedure typically takes a couple of hours, though preparation and recovery add to the time spent in the procedure room.

The elegance of TAVI is that it borrows from the world of coronary stents, using the body’s own plumbing as the delivery route. Its limitation follows from the same fact: the operator can only work with what a catheter can carry and what imaging can show.

What happens during open heart valve surgery?

Open surgery is older, more direct and, in one important respect, more flexible. The surgeon makes an incision down the center of the chest and divides the breastbone, a step called a sternotomy. The heart is then connected to a cardiopulmonary bypass machine, which takes over the work of the heart and lungs so the heart can be stopped, opened and operated on while still.

With the aorta open, the surgeon cuts out the diseased valve entirely, clears away calcium deposits and sews in a replacement. This is the step that TAVI cannot match: the old valve is gone, not flattened. The NHS describes the operation as taking a few hours, after which the heart is restarted, the machine is disconnected and the breastbone is wired back together to heal like any fracture.

Because the chest is open, other repairs can happen in the same session. A blocked coronary artery can be bypassed. A leaking mitral valve, the valve on the other side of the heart, can be repaired. An enlarged section of aorta can be replaced. For someone with several problems at once, this ability to address everything in a single operation weighs heavily in the team’s thinking.

Some surgeons perform a smaller version through a shorter incision or between the ribs, sometimes described as minimally invasive valve surgery. MedlinePlus explains that this still uses the bypass machine and still removes the old valve; it simply reduces the size of the wound. Whether it is suitable depends on anatomy and the surgeon’s experience, and the team will say so if it is on the table.

The patient wakes in an intensive care unit with a breathing tube, drains and monitoring lines, most of which are removed within the first day or two. It is a bigger physical event than TAVI, and everyone involved should say so plainly.

Which valve problems can TAVI treat, and which still need surgery?

TAVI was designed for one condition: aortic stenosis caused by calcium building up on the valve leaflets over decades. This is by far the most common serious valve problem in older adults. MedlinePlus notes that this type of stenosis becomes more common with age and is often not discovered until symptoms appear, typically breathlessness, chest tightness, dizziness or fainting during effort.

Not all narrowed aortic valves look alike. A bicuspid valve, one that formed with two leaflets instead of three, is a birth variation that tends to wear out earlier, often in a person’s fifties or sixties. Its oval shape and uneven calcium pattern can make a catheter valve sit less securely. Teams do perform TAVI in some bicuspid valves, but surgery remains the more established path, and the imaging review is especially careful.

A leaking aortic valve, called aortic regurgitation, is a different problem again. Here the valve does not close properly and blood flows backward. Because there is often little calcium for a catheter valve to anchor against, regurgitation is generally treated surgically, and TAVI is used only in selected situations.

Then there is the person whose valve disease is not the only issue. Severe coronary artery disease, a dilated aorta, or a second diseased valve all favor surgery, because the surgeon can fix them together. The American Heart Association describes this as one of the main reasons open surgery is still chosen even when a person might otherwise qualify for TAVI.

One growing exception runs the other way. When a surgically placed tissue valve wears out years later, a catheter valve can sometimes be placed inside the old one, a technique called valve-in-valve. It spares a second chest operation, which is exactly why the choice of first valve matters so much.

Who is eligible for TAVI, and who is usually asked to wait?

Eligibility is not a checklist with a pass mark. It is a judgement built from several layers of information, and it helps to know what each layer is for.

The first layer is severity. Replacement of either kind is generally offered when stenosis is severe and causing symptoms, or when tests show the heart is beginning to strain even without symptoms. A person with mild or moderate narrowing is usually monitored with regular echocardiograms, ultrasound scans of the heart, rather than treated. Being asked to wait is not a rejection; it reflects evidence that intervening too early exposes people to procedural risk without clear benefit.

The second layer is anatomy. A CT scan measures the valve opening, the shape of the surrounding tissue, the position of the coronary arteries and the width of the leg vessels. Some measurements make TAVI straightforward. Others make it risky: a very small or very large valve ring, coronary arteries sitting unusually low, or heavy calcium in awkward places. The Johns Hopkins overview stresses that this imaging is what allows the team to size and position the valve precisely.

The third layer is the whole person. Lung disease, kidney function, previous chest surgery, frailty and the ability to recover from a long anesthetic all shape which approach is safer. Historically TAVI was reserved for people considered too high-risk for surgery. Trials since then have extended it to lower-risk groups, and guidelines now treat both options as reasonable across a wide range of patients.

The fourth layer is often skipped in casual conversation: what the person wants. Some prioritize the shortest recovery. Others prioritize the longest-lasting result or the fewest lifelong medicines. A good heart team asks, and lets the answer count.

How does age shape the choice between TAVI and surgery?

Age comes up constantly, and for a defensible reason: it is a rough proxy for two things that genuinely matter, how well someone will tolerate a big operation and how many years a replacement valve will need to last.

Major cardiology societies in the United States and Europe have published guidelines that use age bands to structure the conversation. In broad terms, surgery tends to be favored for younger patients, TAVI for the oldest, with a shared decision in between. The US guideline from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology places the shared zone roughly between the mid-sixties and eighty; the European guideline draws its line closer to seventy-five. The exact numbers matter less than the logic behind them.

That logic runs as follows. Catheter valves are always tissue valves, and tissue valves wear over time. Long-term durability data for TAVI valves are still accumulating, because the procedure is younger than surgery. For a person likely to live another twenty-five years, a valve that may need replacing creates a future problem, and a second replacement is more complex than the first. Surgery offers a mechanical valve that can last a lifetime, or a tissue valve placed in a way that leaves room for later options.

For someone in their eighties, the calculation flips. Recovery from a chest operation is slower and riskier, and a tissue valve that lasts a decade or more is likely to outlast the person’s needs. Harvard Health notes that this shift in risk and benefit is why TAVI became established first in older, higher-risk patients.

Age is a starting point, never a verdict. A fit eighty-two-year-old and a frail sixty-eight-year-old may each end up with the approach their birth year would not predict.

Mechanical or tissue valve: the question only surgery asks

Here is a decision that TAVI quietly removes from the table, and that open surgery insists on. Every catheter valve is made of tissue. A surgeon can offer either tissue or mechanical.

A mechanical valve is built from durable materials such as pyrolytic carbon and is designed to last a lifetime without wearing out. Its cost, in the medical sense, is that blood tends to clot on artificial surfaces, so a person with a mechanical valve takes an anticoagulant, a medicine that slows clotting, for life. The standard medicine in this setting is warfarin, which requires regular blood tests to keep the effect within a target range. The NHS and the Mayo Clinic both describe this lifelong commitment as the central trade-off. Some people also notice a faint clicking sound from the valve, which most stop hearing over time.

A tissue valve, from cow or pig tissue treated to be accepted by the body, does not usually require lifelong anticoagulation. Its limitation is durability: tissue valves stiffen and wear, and the commonly cited working life is somewhere in the range of ten to twenty years, varying with the person’s age and the valve used, according to the Mayo Clinic and NHS patient information. Younger patients tend to wear tissue valves out faster.

This is why the mechanical-versus-tissue question is really a question about the decades ahead. A person in their fifties with a mechanical valve accepts daily medicine and blood monitoring in exchange for one operation. A person in their seventies with a tissue valve accepts the possibility of a future valve-in-valve procedure in exchange for a simpler life now. Neither is wrong.

What matters is that the choice is made deliberately, with the anticoagulant conversation happening before the operation rather than after. Any decision about medicines belongs to the prescribing clinician, but the patient’s tolerance for monitoring, bleeding risk and lifestyle should be heard first.

TAVR vs SAVR: the comparison at a glance

Tables flatten nuance, so treat this one as a map rather than a verdict. Each row summarizes what mainstream patient information from the NHS, Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic describes as typical; individual experiences vary widely.

Feature	TAVI / TAVR	Open surgery / SAVR
Route to the valve	Catheter through an artery, usually the groin	Incision through the chest and breastbone
Heart during procedure	Keeps beating	Stopped, with a heart-lung machine
Old valve	Left in place, pushed aside	Removed
Valve type available	Tissue only	Tissue or mechanical
Other repairs at the same time	Limited	Bypass, other valves, aorta
Anesthesia	Often sedation; sometimes general	General
Typical hospital stay	A few days (NHS)	About a week (NHS)
Typical return to normal activity	A few weeks (NHS)	Roughly 2–3 months (NHS)
Distinctive risks	Need for a pacemaker; leak around the valve; vascular injury	Wound and breastbone healing; longer recovery; bleeding
Long-term durability data	Still accumulating	Decades of follow-up

Read the table twice and a pattern emerges. TAVI wins on the near term: a smaller wound, a shorter stay, a faster return to the garden or the grandchildren. Surgery wins on breadth and on the long view: the ability to fix everything at once, the choice of a mechanical valve, and durability evidence that stretches back generations.

What the table cannot show is the interaction between rows. A person who needs a bypass and has a bicuspid valve is pulled toward surgery by two rows at once. A person with fragile lungs and a straightforward valve shape is pulled toward TAVI by two others. The heart team’s skill lies in reading all the rows together and explaining which ones dominated in a particular case.

What are the risks of the TAVI procedure compared with open surgery?

Both procedures carry serious risks, and any honest comparison has to say so before saying anything else. Stroke, bleeding, heart attack, kidney injury and death are possible with either approach. Their likelihood depends far more on the individual than on the procedure, which is why teams calculate a personalized risk rather than quoting a general one.

Some risks belong more to TAVI. The valve sits close to the heart’s electrical wiring, and pressing a metal frame against it can disturb the signal, a problem called heart block. When this persists, a permanent pacemaker is needed. The NHS and the Cleveland Clinic both list this as a recognized complication, and it is more common after TAVI than after surgery. Because the old valve is not removed, a small leak around the edge of the new one, a paravalvular leak, can occur; newer valve designs have reduced this, though it remains a point the imaging team watches closely. Damage to the artery used for access is another TAVI-specific concern, particularly in people with narrow or diseased leg vessels.

Other risks belong more to surgery. A divided breastbone takes weeks to knit, and wound infection, though uncommon, is more serious in the chest than in the groin. Time on the heart-lung machine carries its own small risks to the kidneys and brain. Atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, is common in the days after any heart operation and usually settles, but it can prolong the stay.

Shared risks include endocarditis, an infection of the new valve, which is rare but serious and is why dental care and prompt attention to unexplained fevers matter for life. The Mayo Clinic’s risk lists for both procedures are worth reading in full before the consent conversation, so that the questions you bring are your own.

TAVI procedure recovery time: what the first days and weeks usually look like

The most striking thing about TAVI recovery, for people who have watched a relative go through open surgery, is how quickly the patient is upright. Many are sitting out of bed the same day or the next morning. The groin puncture is closed with a small device or stitch, and the main early instruction is to keep the leg straight for a few hours to let it seal.

Hospital stays are short. The NHS describes most people going home within a few days, once the team is satisfied that the heart rhythm is stable and the new valve is working well on an echocardiogram. A day or two of heart monitoring is standard precisely because of the pacemaker question; rhythm problems usually show themselves early.

At home, the first week is about the groin and the general tiredness that follows any procedure and anesthetic. Bruising at the puncture site is expected and can look dramatic before it fades. Walking is encouraged from the start, gradually building distance. Heavy lifting and strenuous exertion are typically restricted for a short period to protect the access site; the exact advice comes from the discharge team.

The NHS notes that many people feel able to resume normal activities within a few weeks. Driving is usually permitted again after a short interval defined by local licensing rules and the treating team. Cardiac rehabilitation, a supervised program of exercise and education, is offered in many places and is worth accepting even when recovery feels easy; the evidence for its benefit after valve procedures is consistent.

Medicines afterward commonly include an antiplatelet agent, a class of medicine that makes blood less sticky, and sometimes an anticoagulant for a period, depending on other conditions. The prescribing clinician sets the plan and its duration. Follow-up echocardiograms, typically at around a month and then annually, track how the valve is settling.

Recovery after open heart valve surgery: a longer road, walked in stages

Open surgery asks more of the body, and the recovery is honest about it. The first night is spent in intensive care. Most people are woken and breathing on their own within hours, and the drains, lines and catheter come out over the following day or two. Nurses will have the patient sitting, then standing, then walking the corridor sooner than seems reasonable, because early movement lowers the risk of clots and chest infection.

The NHS describes a typical hospital stay of about a week. Pain is managed with a plan set by the team, and the breastbone is the main source of discomfort: coughing, laughing and getting out of bed all pull on it. Holding a rolled towel or small pillow against the chest when coughing is a small trick with a large effect.

The breastbone takes roughly six to twelve weeks to knit, during which pushing, pulling and lifting anything heavier than a light bag are off limits, and drivers are asked to wait until the team clears them. Fatigue is the symptom people underestimate. It is normal to need a rest after a shower in week two and to feel frustrated by it. Appetite and sleep are often disrupted for a few weeks, and low mood is common enough that teams ask about it directly.

Full recovery, in the sense of feeling like oneself again, takes around two to three months according to NHS guidance, and longer for some. Cardiac rehabilitation usually begins a few weeks after discharge and is one of the strongest levers for getting there.

Medicines depend on the valve chosen. A mechanical valve means warfarin for life, with regular blood tests. A tissue valve often means a shorter course of anticoagulant or antiplatelet medicine, decided by the surgeon and cardiologist. Follow-up mirrors TAVI: an early echocardiogram, then regular checks for life.

What people often get wrong about TAVI and open surgery

The first myth is that TAVI is a minor procedure. It is less invasive than surgery, which is not the same thing. A large catheter is passed through the body’s main artery to the heart, a metal frame is expanded against tissue that controls the heartbeat, and the whole thing is done under imaging with a surgical team on standby. People who expect a day-case experience are sometimes unprepared for the monitoring, the bruising and the fatigue.

The second myth is that open surgery is old-fashioned and TAVI is simply better. Surgery has decades of durability data, offers mechanical valves, removes the diseased valve entirely and can fix neighboring problems in the same operation. The American Heart Association presents both as current, mainstream options, and that is how guidelines treat them.

The third myth is that being offered surgery means the team thinks you are strong, and being offered TAVI means they think you are frail. Anatomy, valve type, coronary disease and life expectancy all feed the decision; frailty is one factor among many.

The fourth is that a replacement valve is a permanent fix that ends the story. Tissue valves wear. Mechanical valves need lifelong medicine. Both need regular echocardiograms and lifelong attention to infection risk. Valve replacement treats the problem; it does not remove the need for follow-up.

The fifth is that symptoms will vanish overnight. Breathlessness caused by the narrowed valve often improves quickly, but a heart that has spent years pushing against a blocked valve has thickened and stiffened, and that remodeling reverses slowly, over months. The Mayo Clinic notes that improvement continues well beyond the early recovery period.

The last is that the patient’s preference is a formality. It is not. Guidelines explicitly describe a shared decision in the middle age bands, and a team that does not ask what you value is missing part of the evidence.

Questions to ask your care team before choosing

A joint clinic appointment goes quickly, and the most useful questions are the ones written down beforehand. These are the ones experienced patients and clinicians tend to wish had been asked.

• Which approach are you recommending for me, and what were the two or three factors that mattered most in reaching that view?
• What did my CT scan show about my valve shape, my coronary arteries and my leg vessels, and did any of it make one option harder?
• Do I have other heart problems, such as blocked arteries or a second valve issue, that would be fixed at the same time with surgery but not with TAVI?
• If I have TAVI, what is my personal likelihood of needing a pacemaker, and how would that change my life?
• If I have surgery, would you suggest a mechanical or a tissue valve for me, and why?
• What medicines am I likely to need afterward, for how long, and what monitoring do they involve?
• How long is my expected hospital stay, and what support will I need at home in the first two weeks?
• If this valve wears out in the future, what would my options be then?
• What is my estimated risk of serious complications with each approach, and how did you calculate it?
• Is there anything I should do before the procedure, such as dental checks, that would reduce my risk?

Bring someone with you. Two sets of ears catch different things, and the person who will be helping at home deserves to hear the recovery plan first-hand. Ask whether you can have a written summary of the discussion, and whether there is a nurse or coordinator you can contact with questions afterward. The Mayo Clinic and the NHS both encourage patients to take time over this decision when the clinical picture allows; urgency is real for some, but for many there is room for a second conversation.

When to call your doctor: red-flag signs before and after valve treatment

Aortic stenosis is a condition where the timing of symptoms matters, and where waiting to “see if it passes” can be the wrong instinct. Before any procedure, and while on a monitoring pathway, the signs that should prompt a same-day call to your care team or an emergency service are chest pain or pressure, fainting or near-fainting, sudden breathlessness at rest or when lying flat, and a rapid or irregular heartbeat that does not settle. MedlinePlus lists these as the symptoms that signal the heart is struggling against the narrowed valve.

After TAVI, seek urgent help for bleeding or a rapidly growing swelling at the groin, a leg that becomes cold, pale, numb or painful, fainting or a very slow pulse, sudden weakness or numbness on one side, difficulty speaking, or a drooping face, all of which may indicate a stroke and are an emergency. Fever, chills or feeling unwell without an obvious cause should be reported promptly, because infection of a new valve is rare but serious and is easiest to treat early.

After open surgery, call the team for redness, warmth, discharge or opening of the chest wound, a clicking or shifting sensation in the breastbone, fever, worsening breathlessness, swelling in both legs or sudden weight gain over a few days, a persistent irregular heartbeat, or calf pain and swelling on one side. Anyone on warfarin should also report unusual bruising, blood in the urine or stool, nosebleeds that will not stop, or a fall with a head injury, since these need prompt assessment.

Emotional changes deserve a call too. Low mood, anxiety and poor sleep are common after heart procedures and respond well to support when they are named early.

None of this is meant to alarm. Most recoveries are uneventful. The point is that the people who treated your valve want to hear from you when something feels wrong, and that in this area of medicine, calling early is almost always the right decision.

Frequently asked questions

Is TAVI better than open heart surgery?

Neither is better in general; each is better for particular people. TAVI offers a smaller wound and faster recovery, which matters most for older or frailer patients. Surgery offers mechanical valves, removal of the old valve and the ability to fix other heart problems at the same time, which matters most for younger patients or those with complex disease. The heart team weighs these against your scans and health.

What is the difference between TAVR and SAVR?

TAVR is transcatheter aortic valve replacement, delivered through a blood vessel with the heart beating. SAVR is surgical aortic valve replacement, performed through the chest with the heart stopped on a bypass machine. TAVR is the American term for what the NHS calls TAVI. SAVR removes the old valve and can use a tissue or mechanical replacement; TAVR pushes the old valve aside and always uses tissue.

Who is eligible for TAVI?

People with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis whose valve anatomy and blood vessels are suitable on CT scanning, and for whom a heart team judges the catheter route to be as safe or safer than surgery. Originally reserved for high-risk patients, TAVI is now considered across a broad range of ages and risk levels. People with complex coronary disease, bicuspid valves or leaking valves are more often directed toward surgery.

What is the TAVI procedure recovery time?

The NHS describes most people going home within a few days and feeling able to return to normal activities within a few weeks. The first week centers on the groin puncture site, which bruises, and general tiredness. Walking is encouraged from the start. Heavy lifting is restricted briefly, and driving resumes after an interval set by the team. Cardiac rehabilitation supports the return to full activity.

What are the main risks of the TAVI procedure?

Stroke, bleeding, injury to the access artery, kidney problems, a leak around the new valve and the need for a permanent pacemaker are the risks most often discussed. The pacemaker risk is higher than after surgery because the valve frame sits near the heart’s electrical system. Death is possible but uncommon; your personal risk depends on age, other conditions and anatomy, and the team will estimate it for you.

Why would a heart team recommend open surgery instead of TAVI?

Common reasons include younger age with a long life expectancy, a valve shape that suits a catheter valve poorly, a bicuspid or leaking valve, blocked coronary arteries that need bypass, a second diseased valve, or an enlarged aorta. Surgery addresses all of these at once and offers a mechanical valve designed to last a lifetime. The recommendation reflects the whole picture, not a judgement about fitness.

How long does a TAVI valve last compared with a surgical valve?

Both TAVI valves and surgical tissue valves wear over time, with a commonly quoted working life of roughly ten to twenty years according to Mayo Clinic and NHS information, varying with age and valve type. Surgical tissue valves have decades of follow-up data; TAVI durability data are still accumulating. Mechanical valves, available only through surgery, are designed to last a lifetime but require lifelong anticoagulant medicine.

Will I need blood thinners after TAVI or valve surgery?

Usually yes, though the type and duration differ. After TAVI, an antiplatelet medicine is common, sometimes with an anticoagulant for a period depending on other conditions. After surgery, a mechanical valve requires lifelong warfarin with regular blood tests, while a tissue valve often needs a shorter course. The prescribing clinician sets the plan; do not start, stop or change any medicine without their guidance.

Can TAVI be done if I have already had valve surgery?

In many cases, yes. When a surgically placed tissue valve wears out, a catheter valve can sometimes be placed inside it, a technique called valve-in-valve. This avoids a second chest operation. Suitability depends on the size and type of the original valve and on CT imaging. It is one reason the choice of first valve is discussed so carefully, especially in younger patients.

Do symptoms improve immediately after aortic valve replacement?

Breathlessness caused directly by the narrowed valve often eases quickly, sometimes within days. Fuller improvement takes longer, because a heart that has thickened over years of pushing against the blockage remodels slowly over months. Fatigue from the procedure itself also takes time to lift. The Mayo Clinic notes that recovery of heart function and exercise capacity continues well past the early weeks.

References

• NHS: Aortic valve replacement
• Cleveland Clinic: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)
• MedlinePlus: Aortic stenosis

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.