Racial Comparisons of the Outcomes of Transcatheter and Surgical Aortic Valve Implantation Using the Medicare Database.

Racial disparities in the outcomes after intervention for aortic valve disease remain understudied. We stratified patients by race who underwent surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in the Medicare database. The TAVI cohort consisted of 17,973 patients (3.9% were black and 1.0% were Hispanic). The SAVR cohort consisted of 95,078 patients, (4.8% were black and 1.3% were Hispanic). Most comorbidities were more common in blacks. After TAVI, 30-day mortality was not significantly different in races with both unadjusted and adjusted data. There were no significant racial differences in readmission rates or discharge to home after TAVI. After SAVR, black patients had worse unadjusted 30-day and 1-year mortality than whites or Hispanics (30-day mortality, 4.7% vs 6.2% vs 4.7% for whites, blacks, and Hispanics, respectively, p = 0.0001; 1-year mortality 11.7% vs 16.1% vs 12.5%, respectively, p = 0.0001); however, after adjustment, there were no differences in mortality. Black patients had higher 30-day readmission rates after SAVR (20.1% vs 25.2% vs 21.7% for whites, blacks, and Hispanics, respectively, p = 0.0001), which persisted after adjustment for comorbidities. Minorities were underrepresented in both SAVR and TAVI relative to what would be predicted by population prevalence. In conclusion, while blacks have worse outcomes in SAVR compared with whites or Hispanics, race did not impact mortality, readmission, or discharge to home in TAVI. Both blacks and Hispanics were underrepresented compared with what would be predicted by population prevalence.