One-Year Outcomes of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Using the Direct Aortic Approach.

BACKGROUND: The direct aortic (DA) approach allows for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in patients with difficult peripheral vascular anatomy. The CoreValve ADVANCE Direct Aortic (ADVANCE DA) study was performed to assess the outcomes of DA TAVI with the CoreValve System (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN) in routine practice. METHODS: Patients were selected for the DA approach by local cardiac surgical teams, and TAVI was performed with patients under general anesthesia. Safety events were adjudicated according to the Valve Academic Research Consortium-2 definitions by an independent clinical events committee. All imaging data, including that from multislice computed tomography and follow-up echocardiography, were analyzed by an independent core laboratory. RESULTS: From September 2012 to February 2014, 100 patients were enrolled (52.0% male, age 81.9 ± 5.9 years, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Score 5.9 ± 3.2%) at 9 centers in Europe. Peripheral vascular disease was present in 51.0% of patients, and 38.0% had diabetes. Of the 100 patients enrolled, 92 underwent TAVI. At 30 days after TAVI, 98.1% were free of moderate or severe paravalvular leak. At 1 year, 16 patients had died (Kaplan-Meier rate 17.9%), 1 (1.1%) patient had had a stroke, classified as nondisabling, and 15 (17.0%) patients had received a permanent pacemaker. Most patients experienced improved quality of life as measured by the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire overall summary score (mean change from baseline to 1 year, 39.6 ± 26.3; p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The DA approach provides a feasible alternative for patients with challenging anatomic features that may otherwise preclude use of the TAVI procedure.

Local and general anaesthesia do not influence outcome of transfemoral aortic valve implantation.

BACKGROUND: There is great variability for the type of anaesthesia used during TAVI, with no clear consensus coming from comparative studies or guidelines. We sought to detect regional differences in the anaesthetic management of patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in Europe and to evaluate the relationship between type of anaesthesia and in-hospital and 1 year outcome. METHODS: Between January 2011 and May 2012 the Sentinel European TAVI Pilot Registry enrolled 2807 patients treated via a transfemoral approach using either local (LA-group, 1095 patients, 39%) or general anaesthesia (GA-group, 1712 patients, 61%). RESULTS: A wide variation in LA use was evident amongst the 10 participating countries. The use of LA has increased over time (from a mean of 37.5% of procedures in the first year, to 57% in last 6 months, p<0.01). MI, major stroke as well as in-hospital death rate (7.0% LA vs 5.3% GA, p=0.053) had a similar incidence between groups, confirmed in multivariate regression analysis after adjusting for confounders. Dividing our population in tertiles according to the Log-EuroSCORE we found similar mortality under LA, whilst mortality was higher in the highest risk tertile under GA. Survival at 1 year, compared by Kaplan-Meier analysis, was similar between groups (log-rank: p=0.1505). CONCLUSIONS: Selection of anaesthesia appears to be more influenced by national practice and operator preference than patient characteristics. In the absence of an observed difference in outcomes for either approach, there is no compelling argument to suggest that operators and centres should change their anaesthetic practice.

Coronary artery surgery: cardiotomy suction or cell salvage?

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) today results in what may be regarded as acceptable levels of blood loss with many institutions avoiding allogeneic red cell transfusion in over 60% of their patients. The majority of cardiac surgeons employ cardiotomy suction to preserve autologous blood during on-pump coronary artery bypass surgery; however the use of cardiotomy suction is associated with a more pronounced systemic inflammatory response and a resulting coagulopathy as well as exacerbating the microembolic load. This leads to a tendency to increased blood loss, transfusion requirement and organ dysfunction. Conversely, the avoidance of cardiotomy suction in coronary artery bypass surgery is not associated with an increased transfusion requirement. There is therefore no indication for the routine use of cardiotomy suction in on-pump coronary artery surgery.