Urgent balloon aortic valvuloplasty in cardiogenic shock patients: still state of the art in the TAVI era?

For a decade, percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) was a treatment option for high surgical risk and inoperable patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). It was first described by Cribier et al in 19861. Six years later, in 1992, Cribier et al reported the results of 10 patients treated by BAV as a life-saving procedure in an emergency setting due to cardiogenic shock (CS)2. In 2012, BAV was regarded as a bridge to surgery or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in haemodynamically unstable patients at high surgical risk, and as a palliative treatment alternative in patients for whom neither surgery nor TAVI was ...