Echocardiography is the key element in the follow-up of individuals with a prosthetic valve, with the first routine postoperative assessment serving as a crucial baseline.
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Supports baseline echocardiography for prosthetic valve monitoring; leaves open optimal surveillance intervals across valve types.
The number of patients with prosthetic valves is steadily increasing, in particular because of the epidemic of aortic stenosis in the elderly. In Germany alone, more than 24 000 patients undergo valve replacement per year. In addition to the patient’s history and physical examination, echocardiography is the key element in the follow-up of individuals with a prosthetic valve (box 1). #### Box 1 The following questions should be systematically answered when examining a prosthesis by echocardiography The first routine postoperative assessment is particularly important, since it serves as baseline for later comparison, especially with regard to transprosthetic gradients, prosthetic regurgitation, right ventricular peak pressure, left ventricular function, and other aspects. The examination of the patient with a prosthetic cardiac valve, however, is one of the most challenging tasks in echocardiography. For several reasons echocardiography in these patients is more difficult than in others:
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FA Flachskampf (2009) studied this question.
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