Does direct transcatheter heart valve implantation compared to implantation with balloon predilatation improve clinical and echocardiographic outcomes in patients undergoing TAVR?
Direct TAVR without balloon predilatation yields similar midterm clinical and echocardiographic outcomes to TAVR with predilatation, while potentially reducing the risk of new-onset persistent left bundle branch block.
The 2 TAVR strategies, with or without BAVP, provided similar clinical and echocardiographic outcomes over a midterm follow-up although BAVP was associated with a higher rate of new onset persistent left bundle branch block, particularly in patients receiving a CoreValve.
Bernardi et al. (Mon,) studied this question.