Impact of pulmonary hypertension on in-hospital outcome after surgical or transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

AIMS

We aimed to analyse the impact of pulmonary hypertension (PH) on the in-hospital outcome of either surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).

METHODS AND RESULTS

Data from all 107,057 patients undergoing isolated SAVR or TAVR in Germany between 2007 and 2014 were provided by the German Federal Bureau of Statistics. About 18% of patients with aortic valve stenosis suffered from PH. Patients with PH had more comorbidities with consequently increased EuroSCORE (TAVR without PH: 12.3%; with PH: 24%). The presence of PH led to an increase of in-hospital strokes, bleedings, acute kidney injuries, and pacemaker implantations in both treatment groups (TAVR and SAVR), but the PH-associated increase of complications and mortality was less pronounced among patients receiving TAVR (mortality after TAVR without PH: 5.4%; with PH: 7.2%). After baseline risk adjustment, the TAVR procedure was associated with a reduced risk of in-hospital stroke (OR 0.81, p=0.011), bleeding (OR 0.22, p<0.001), and mortality (OR 0.70, p=0.005) among PH patients, and in comparison to surgical treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

PH is a risk factor for worse outcome of SAVR and TAVR. This fact is less pronounced among TAVR patients. Our data suggest a shift towards the transcatheter approach in patients suffering from PH.