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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Importance of digital media in patient education for transcatheter aortic valve implantation
Florian Genske, Anna Riepe, Elias Rawish, Thomas Stiermaier, Ingo Eitel, Christian Frerker, Tobias Schmidt
Florian Genske, University Heart Center Luebeck, University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Lübeck 23562, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Florian Genske, Elias Rawish, Medical Clinic II (Cardiology/Angiology/Intensive Care Medicine), University Heart Center, DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), Lübeck 23562, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Anna Riepe, Department of Cardiology, SLK Kliniken Heilbronn, Heilbronn 74078, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Thomas Stiermaier, Ingo Eitel, Medical Clinic II (Cardiology/Angiology/Intensive Care Medicine), University Heart Center Lübeck, Lübeck 23538, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Christian Frerker, Medical Clinic II, University Heart Center Lübeck, UKSH Campus Lübeck, Lübeck 23562, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Tobias Schmidt, Department of Cardiology, Asklepios Clinic Hamburg-Rissen, Hamburg 22559, Germany
Co-corresponding authors: Florian Genske and Tobias Schmidt.
Author contributions: Genske F wrote the original draft of the manuscript and was responsible for visualization; Riepe A and Rawish E performed the research; Riepe A, Frerker C, and Schmidt T were responsible for conceptualization of the research study; Stiermaier T and Eitel I helped with review and editing of the manuscript; Frerker C and Eitel I were responsible for supervision and final validation of the manuscript; Frerker C and Schmidt T designed the research study. Genske F and Schmidt T contributed equally to this manuscript as co-corresponding authors. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck (approval No. 21-304).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at German Clinical Trials Register (
https://www.drks.de/DRKS00037934). The registration identification number is DRKS00037934.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Data sharing statement: All data relevant to the study are included in the article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Florian Genske, MD, Post Doctoral Researcher, University Heart Center Lübeck, University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, Lübeck 23562, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
florian.genske@uksh.de
Received: September 5, 2025
Revised: September 17, 2025
Accepted: November 18, 2025
Published online: January 26, 2026
Processing time: 134 Days and 10.8 Hours
BACKGROUND
Patient consent discussion is an essential part of preoperative patient preparation. It is the main basis of decision making for the patient. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has been established as the standard treatment option for symptomatic aortic stenosis-patients. Current guidelines recommend transfemoral TAVI for patients aged 70 years or older, independently of the surgical risk and for patients below 70 years of age if they are at high surgical risk.
AIM
To evaluate beneficial aspects of an explanatory video in addition to conventional medical counseling.
METHODS
The study was conducted as a prospective, single-arm, monocentric cohort study. Eligible patients received conventional medical counseling, followed by an educational video. Evaluation of the conventional counseling and the educational video was obtained through a 32-item questionnaire. Two hypotheses were tested: Hypothesis 1: Showing an explanatory video in addition to the standard patient consent discussion improves the mediation of medical facts; and hypothesis 2: Showing an explanatory video in addition to the standard patient consent discussion improves patient satisfaction and confidence.
RESULTS
In total, 66 patients, scheduled for transfemoral TAVI were included, 59% of them were male and 41% female, averaging 81 ± 6.1 years old. Conventional medical counseling by the attending physician was the major criterium for overall patient satisfaction and had more influence on the absence of preprocedural tension than the transfer of additional factual knowledge through the video. Nearly two-thirds (61%) reported that the video enhanced their understanding of the procedure’s benefits, while 42% indicated a better understanding of the potential risks and 56% felt that watching the video contributed to decreased preprocedural tension.
CONCLUSION
Conventional medical counseling was most important for overall patient satisfaction. Educational videos aid in information transfer, in the reduction of preprocedural tension and were strongly sought after by the patients.
Core Tip: We performed a prospective, single-arm, monocentric cohort-study to evaluate possible beneficial aspects of an explanatory video in addition to conventional patient consent discussion in an elderly patient population which was scheduled to receive transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation. In our study, we could show that conventional medical counseling was the major criterium for patient satisfaction and had more influence on preprocedural composure than the transfer of additional factual knowledge by the video. However, educational videos may aid in information transfer and composure-induction and were strongly sought after by the patients.
