Rural United States Experience of Incorporation of a Technologically Advanced and Procedurally Complex Cardiovascular Program - the Sanford Trans-Catheter Aortic Valve Replacement Experience.

Trans-catheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 for treatment of severe symptomatic aortic stenosis in non-surgical and high risk patients. Implementation of this complex procedure requires a comprehensive heart team approach. Rural demographics in the Midwest pose many challenges related to low volumes of operations both at institutional and individual levels, leading to serious concerns about the quality of care delivered in such a setting. We compared the TAVR data at the University of South Dakota Sanford Medical Center to the national registry with the aim of looking at differences in outcomes of this procedure in a rural setting.