Measuring Frailty to Determine the Likelihood of Poor Outcomes Following Aortic Valve Replacement: Can the Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale Prove Useful?

Abstract

The importance of frailty as a pre-operative determinant of outcomes following aortic valve replacement has been highlighted in recent years. While particularly frail patients would previously have been deemed unsuitable for traditional Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement (SAVR), the growth of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) as an alternative has thrust this issue into the spotlight.