Self-Expanding vs. Balloon-Expandable Devices for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

In the last 15 years, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has had an impressive advancement, transforming a challenging intervention into a very standardized and streamlined procedure. The latest generation of TAVI devices have incorporated features to reduce the delivery catheter profile, facilitate deployment, and in some cases enable repositioning and retrieval capability. According to the type of deployment, current TAVI devices can be divided into the categories of balloon-expandable, self-expanding, and mechanically expandable. Despite their widespread utilization, there are still no clear indications as to which is the best device for specific anatomical situations. In this chapter we will provide a brief summary of the current TAVI technologies, we will summarize key results of trials comparing different TAVI devices, and we will present several clinical scenarios in which a specific device could be more suitable than the others.