The authors discuss the minimally invasive AVR and review the nursing care of patients who have AVR.

Aortic valve replacement (AVR) is a common cardiac surgical procedure. An estimated 106 000 cardiac valve operations were performed in the United States in 2005 (the most recent year for which procedure numbers are available).1 AVR is the most widely performed valve replacement.2,3 Aortic stenosis affects from 2% to 7% of persons more than 65 years old in the United States and is likely to increase in prevalence as the population ages. The current American Heart Association guidelines4 for valvular heart disease recommend AVR to improve signs and symptoms and survival rates in patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis or in asymptomatic patients with an ejection fraction less than 50%. In a retrospective cohort study, Pai et al5 found that asymptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis had a...

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