Current evidence on TAVI has been generated exclusively by cardiology studies and no operative data from cardiac surgeons are available. Here we describe the development of our TAVI program and report the results of transfemoral TAVI done by cardiac surgeons on their own.
This study included all the TAVI procedures on native valve performed at Cardiac Surgery Unit, Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona, during the period October 2018 – July 2022. Relevant prospectively collected preoperative, intraprocedural and postoperative data were retrieved from the Institutional database.
A total of 413 patients were included in the study. Mean patients’ age was 82 years and among them 44% (180/413) were male. STS score was 3.1% (2.2 – 4.4). Eighty patients underwent transapical TAVI and 333 patients had a transfemoral approach. We progressively moved from trans-apical TAVI towards trans-femoral procedures that are now routinely performed on conscious sedation and using a fully percutaneous approach.After trans-femoral TAVI, 30-day mortality rate was 1%, cerebral stroke occurred in 2% of the cases, permanent pacemaker implantation was necessary in 23% of the patients and in 6% of the cases there was a moderate/severe degree of aortic regurgitation. There was no association between operators performing TAVI and 30-day mortality.
The acquisition of catheter-based skills and an adequate training allowed cardiac surgeons to perform on their own awake and fully percutaneous trans-femoral TAVI with similar results when compared with major randomized clinical trials and registries’ experiences.
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.
