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.

Quality-of-life in elderly patients one year after transcatheter aortic valve implantation for severe aortic stenosis.

AIMS: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an emerging alternative to medical therapy reserved to a limited population with severe aortic stenosis. Quality-of-life (QoL) is a critical measure of effectiveness of TAVI in this patient population. In this prospective study, we sought to assess one year changes in QoL in patients who underwent TAVI. METHODS AND RESULTS: From June 2007 to July 2010, 149 consecutive patients underwent TAVI using the 18 Fr CoreValve (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, MN, USA) or the Edwards SAPIEN XT heart valve (Edwards Lifescience, Irvine, CA, USA) at our institution. Of these, 143 patients with successful prosthesis implantation comprised the study population. The SF-12v2 Health-Survey questionnaire provides scales for physical (physical component summary [PCS]) and mental (mental component summary [MCS]) health. Among patients included in the present analysis, device success was obtained in 138 patients (96.5%). Mean preprocedural SF-12v2 scores showed an important upgrading after TAVI: PCS improved from 28.3 to 44.0 at five months and 42.4 at 12 months (p<0.001). MCS increased from 38.0 to 47.3 at five months and 48.2 at 12 months (p<0.001). Both the physical and mental score summaries at follow-up of these post-TAVI patients were not significantly different from the anticipated thresholds of the general Italian population over the age of 75 years. NYHA functional class improvement was reported in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed a marked mid-term improvement in functional status and physical and mental health in patients who underwent TAVI.

Feasibility of percutaneous transcatheter mitral valve repair with the MitraClip system using conscious sedation.

We report the first human case of percutaneous transcatheter mitral valve repair with the MitraClip system under conscious sedation in a patient with severe mitral regurgitation. The procedure was performed using the standard MitraClip technique, in the catheterization laboratory, with transesophageal echocardiographic and fluoroscopic guidance. Transesophageal echocardiography is the primary imaging modality of the MitraClip procedure, which usually necessitates general anesthesia to guarantee complete immobilization of the patient allowing precise delivery of the MitraClip device. We successfully performed the procedure under deep sedation, using remifentanil and local anesthesia in a patient who had serious contraindications to general anesthesia. The success of this procedure suggests that percutaneous transcatheter mitral repair with the MitraClip system can be safely realized using conscious sedation. Conscious sedation may represent a convenient alternative approach for selected patients who undergo this innovative procedure.