**1. Introduction**

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378 Calcific Aortic Valve Disease

There is a trend towards a worldwide aging in the last decades and diseases which are common in the elderly people would take important place in clinical practice. Although patients with aortic stenosis (AS) usually remain asymptomatic for a long time, once the classic triad of angina, syncope, and exertional dyspnea develop, the prognosis becomes dramatically worse. Accurate diagnosis and efficient treatment are getting more important as aortic valve replace‐ ment is the treatment of choice for severe AS.

We present a detailed description of the different therapeutic procedures that are being developed and increasingly used as an alternative to standard surgical treatment. However special surgical techniques as low-profile mechanical prosthesis, biological prosthesis (both stented and stentless), homograft and Ross technique (pulmonary autograft in aortic position and homograft in pulmonary position) will also be discussed in this chapter. We would also like to mention special considerations about treatment in special groups such as elderly.
