The Hybrid Cardiac Surgeon: Way to go or waste of time?

Abstract

Transcatheter therapies in structural heart diseaseare on a rise, since the first transcatheter aortic valveimplantation (TAVI) in 2006. Numbers of TAVIhave overtaken the number of conventional aorticvalve replacements in certain countries in Europe,for example in Germany, where it was performed forthe first time in 2014.[1] This trend will keep going,particularly as recent prospective, randomized trialsconducted by large-scale pharmaceutical industriesshowed non-inferiority for TAVI even in patientswith a low calculated perioperative risk profile.[2,3]Similar developments can be observed in the fieldof mitral valve disease, albeit with less impact oncardiac surgery. However, the results of the latest