Bacteraemia and infective endocarditis after transcatheter aortic valve replacement: prevention is the key
Since the first implementation in 2002 by Alain Cribier, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has become a standard procedure for high-risk and elderly patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. Recently, the use of TAVR has expanded to relatively younger patients with low to moderate surgical risk. Infective endocarditis (IE) after TAVR, first reported in medical literature in 2010, is a relatively new and extremely concerning complication.1 Its incidence, reported as 1.1% per person-year based on a large international registry, is similar to that observed in surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR), despite the latter involving much larger skin incisions and greater internal tissue exposure.2 On the one hand, this fact underscores that the development of IE is influenced not only by the iatrogenic introduction of bacteria but also by the increased risk associated with implanted foreign material. On the other hand, TAVR patients are older, have an increased frailty and an in
