Surgical aortic valve replacement, which has been performed since the 1970s, is considered the gold standard in the treatment of aortic valve stenosis. However, catheter-based aortic valve replacement is on a par with surgical aortic valve replacement, even in younger low-risk patients. This is shown by the one-year evaluation of the DEDICATE-DZHK6 study led by Prof. Dr Stefan Blankenberg at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and 37 other German heart centres. During this period, half as many deaths and strokes occurred after the procedure in the catheter group (47 per cent) as in the surgical group. The average age of the 1,414 patients was 74, which is considered young for the clinical picture of aortic valve stenosis. A special feature of the study was that it did not specify the selection of the various available prosthesis models - the treatment teams were able to decide for themselves. The industry-independent study, which is part of the DZHK research programme, is the first in Germany to be jointly designed by the specialist societies for cardiology and cardiac surgery and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Link to the original publication: Transcatheter or Surgical Treatment of Aortic-Valve Stenosis (Blankenberg et al., 2024)
Link to the press release: Catheter-based and surgical aortic valve replacement on an equal footing