Aortic Stenosis Prognosis

Aortic Stenosis. [Source]

The natural history of aortic stenosis (AS) in adults is characterised by a long latent period, during which there is a gradually increasing obstruction and an increase in the pressure load on the myocardium while the patient remains asymptomatic.

Once symptoms appear in patients with an unrelieved obstruction, the prognosis is poor. Survival curves have shown that the interval from the onset of symptoms to the time of death is approximately two years in patients with heart failure, three years in those with syncope and five years in those with angina. 

Before the advent of surgery, sudden cardiac death was quite common in cases of aortic stenosis (in 1968, Campbell reported that of 70 patients with aortic stenosis who died, 44 (73%) of the deaths were sudden.

Although AS may be responsible for sudden death, this usually occurs in patients who have previously been symptomatic.


There is a 6–9% incidence of sudden cardiac death in asymptomatic chil ren with aortic stenosis.

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