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Is medication an effective treatment?

Medication alone will not treat severe aortic stenosis, also known as heart valve failure. While your doctor may prescribe medication at first to control your symptoms, it will continue to get worse until you replace your aortic valve.

Take action with TAVR

Know Your Treatment Options

Heart valve failure may sound scary, but it’s treatable, and you should know your options.

TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) and SAVR (surgical aortic valve replacement), also called open heart surgery, are both ways to replace your heart valve. They reduce your risk of death from heart valve failure and provide relief from your symptoms. They each have their own key differences.

Is TAVR Open Heart Surgery?

  • TAVR is not open heart surgery
  • TAVR does not involve opening the chest
  • The average TAVR procedure takes about 1 hour
  • Most TAVR patients are up and walking in just a few hours
  • Most TAVR patients return home the next day and have a short recovery time, getting them back to everyday activities quickly

One hour icon

On average, the TAVR procedure lasts about 1 hour, vs 4 hours with open heart surgery.

TAVR vs Open Heart Surgery*

TAVR SAVR
SHORT PROCEDURE TIME
SHORT RECOVERY TIME
SHORT HOSPITAL STAY
LESS PAINFUL PROCEDURE
RELIEF OF SYMPTOMS
IMPROVED LIFE EXPECTANCY
IMPROVED HEART FUNCTION

The most serious risks of TAVR include death, stroke, serious damage to the arteries, or serious bleeding.

At 10 years, SAPIEN 3 TAVR had similar long-term outcomes to surgery in intermediate risk patients.*1

In a clinical trial, getting TAVR before symptoms start was shown to help prevent the loss of regular lifestyle and unexpected trips to the hospital—compared to people who waited to get TAVR.2

*

The PARTNER 2 Trial, SAPIEN 3 TAVR had similar mortality and valve durability outcomes to surgery at ten years in intermediate-risk patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis.

10-year data based on results from the PARTNER 2 study comparing TAVR to valve replacement by open-heart surgery.

Ken shares his knowledge on TAVR vs SAVR

After having both open heart surgery and TAVR, Ken wants people to know about his experience.

Watch video

Here’s what to know about open heart surgery

  • Typically, during open heart surgery, the surgeon will make an incision (cut) across the full length of your chest to access your valve
  • Sometimes open heart surgeries can be performed through smaller incisions (called minimal incision valve surgery)
  • Your old aortic valve will be taken out and replaced with a new one
  • The new valve can be either a mechanical valve or a bioprosthetic valve
  • Talk to your doctor about questions you may have about open heart surgery and its associated risks
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Start your Informed Decision Guide

This Informed Decision Guide is a shared decision-making tool endorsed by doctors and used in a clinical study of patients with heart valve failure. It was found to be easy to use and helped patients and doctors arrive at a treatment that reflected the patients’ values.

Begin here

Not all TAVR valves are the same

See why receiving a TAVR valve by Edwards matters.

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Find a TAVR Hospital near you

Is TAVR right for you? A Heart Valve Team can help determine your treatment options.

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References: 1.Makkar R. Ten-year outcomes of the PARTNER 2 intermediate-risk studies: a propensity-matched analysis of P2S3i TAVR and P2A surgery. Presented at: TCT 2025; October 27, 2025; San Francisco, CA. 2.Généreux P, Schwartz A, Oldemeyer JB, et al. Transcatheter aortic-valve replacement for asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis. N Engl J Med. 2025;392(3):217-227.

Patients and/or clinicians quoted on this website have received compensation from Edwards Lifesciences.