Early surgery versus conventional treatment in asymptomatic very severe aortic stenosis.

BACKGROUND

The optimal timing of surgical intervention remains controversial in asymptomatic patients with very severe aortic stenosis. We therefore compared the long-term results of early surgery and a conventional treatment strategy.

METHODS AND RESULTS

From 1996 to 2006, we prospectively included a total of 197 consecutive asymptomatic patients (99 men; age, 63+/-12 years) with very severe aortic stenosis. Patients were excluded if they had angina, syncope, exertional dyspnea, ejection fraction <0.50, significant mitral valve disease, or age >85 years. Very severe aortic stenosis was defined as a critical stenosis in the aortic valve area < or =0.75 cm(2) accompanied by a peak aortic jet velocity > or =4.5 m/s or a mean transaortic pressure gradient > or =50 mm Hg on Doppler echocardiography. The primary end point was defined as the composite of operative mortality and cardiac death during follow-up. Early surgery was performed on 102 patients, and a conventional treatment strategy was used for 95 patients. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups in terms of age, gender, European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation score, or ejection fraction. During a median follow-up of 1501 days, the operated group had no operative mortalities, no cardiac deaths, and 3 noncardiac deaths; the conventional treatment group had 18 cardiac and 10 noncardiac deaths. The estimated actuarial 6-year cardiac and all-cause mortality rates were 0% and 2+/-1% in the operated group and 24+/-5% and 32+/-6% in the conventional treatment group, respectively (P<0.001), and for 57 propensity score-matched pairs, the risk of all-cause mortality was significantly lower in the operated group than in the conventional treatment group (hazard ratio, 0.135; 95% confidence interval, 0.030 to 0.597; P=0.008).

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with the conventional treatment strategy, early surgery in patients with very severe aortic stenosis is associated with an improved long-term survival by decreasing cardiac mortality. Early surgery is therefore a therapeutic option to further improve clinical outcomes in asymptomatic patients with very severe aortic stenosis and low operative risk.