The increasing number of patients with heart valve disease and the wider range of therapeutic options now available, demands the standardization of organizational structures. The ‘heart valve clinic’ is already established as a specialist outpatient clinic linked with multidisciplinary inpatient care as well as education and training. Recent international guidelines extend this specialist concept to a ‘Heart Valve Centre of Excellence’ or ‘Heart Valve Centre’. These centres were proposed in order that durable mitral valve repair could be virtually guaranteed at close to zero risk in patients with asymptomatic severe mitral regurgitation caused by prolapse. The intention was that invasive valve interventions should not occur outside Heart Valve Centres. The standards defining such a centre have not previously been described and this is the purpose of this document. A Heart Valve Centre includes a heart valve clinic, but also multidisciplinary heart teams for the care of patients with mitral valve disease, tricuspid valve disease, diseases of the aorta and aortic valve and infective endocarditis (Table 1). [...]

doi.org/10.1093/EJCTS/EZX283, hdl.handle.net/1765/105734
European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
Erasmus University Rotterdam

Chambers, J.B. (John B.), Prendergast, P., Iung, B., Rosenhek, R., Zamorano, J., Pierard, L., … Lancellotti, P. (2017). Standards defining a 'Heart Valve Centre'. European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, 52(3), 418–424. doi:10.1093/EJCTS/EZX283