While transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures are historically reserved for elderly population, these devices are increasingly being used in younger and younger patients as they provide reduced hospital stay and recovery time. Therefore, due to the growing treatable populations for these devices, leading data and analytics company GlobalData predicts that the TAVR market may increase to as much as $5bn in the US alone by 2030.

Ashley Young, Senior Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The use of TAVR over open surgical techniques for replacing an aortic valve has exploded globally in recent years. Physicians prefer TAVR due to the reduced hospital stay and recovery time associated with the procedure, which is especially relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic as hospital space is being reserved for COVID-19 patients.”

Physicians have traditionally been sceptical about using TAVR in younger patients, mainly due to limited clinical trial data questioning the long-lasting durability of TAVR devices. This hesitation also extended to patients with diseased aortic valves of the bicuspid type as people who are born with bicuspid aortic valves are more likely to develop aortic valve disease at a younger age compared to those that do not have bicuspid aortic valves.

Young adds: “While full uptake of the TAVR procedure in bicuspid valve patients will likely not occur until even more durability data on TAVR valves is released, the recently updated labels for Medtronic’s Evolut and Edwards Lifesciences’ Sapien brands adjusting the warning against using the devices in patients with bicuspid valves will likely provide physicians with an added level of comfort in using TAVR in this patient pool, increasing the market value of TAVR devices overall. Patients with bicuspid valves constitute a large portion of patients that are diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis, and using TAVR in this population would hugely increase the number of TAVR procedures carried out.”