History of percutaneous aortic valve prosthesis.

This review describes the development of percutaneous transluminal catheter-mounted heart valves for permanent implantation. The time period from the first surgically implanted valve in 1952, through catheter- mounted valves inserted for temporal relief, until the conception of the percutaneous transcatheter heart valve for permanent implantation is summarized. The process involved in the construction of the new valve is detailed in Figure 1, and the future of this new treatment modality is discussed.