Guidelines on “Management of heart valve diseases” of the EACTS and ESC – version 2017

Heart valve diseases are the most common disease of the cardiovascular system, besides coronary heart disease. Surgical intervention is still the gold standard therapy today. Perioperative results and long-term results are excellent. An improvement in the quality of life can be durably achieved for the majority of patients. Alternative new therapies for high-risk patients are now available that can be used to treat aortic and mitral valve diseases without the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and Mitraclip procedures for the treatment of severe mitral valve insufficiency also show good short-term results but there is lack of comprehensive long-term results. New transcatheter devices are also available for treatment of mitral valve diseases. This article summarizes the evidence and recommendations for the treatment of acquired diseases of the aortic, mitral and tricuspid valves (except endocarditis) from the recent 2017 guidelines on the management of valvular heart disease. These were jointly produced by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, with a focus on changes to the previous guidelines from 2012. © 2017, Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.