Background: Limited data are available for clinical outcomes in patients who underwent urgent or emergency transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). This study investigated in-hospital and 1-year outcomes and explored prognostic covariates in urgent/emergency TAVI using nationwide registry data.
Methods and results: Among 26,775 patients who underwent TAVI between August 2013 and December 2019, 25,495 with 1-year follow-up information were analyzed in this study. Baseline and procedural characteristics, as well as clinical adverse events, were compared between the urgent/emergency and elective TAVI groups. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality within 1 year after TAVI. Multivariable Cox regression models were constructed to identify independent predictors after urgent or emergency TAVI. Urgent or emergency TAVI was performed in 578 (2.3%) patients. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons score was significantly higher in the urgent/emergency than elective TAVI group (13.3% vs. 6.0%; P<0.001). Device success rate was comparable between the 2 groups. All-cause death-free survival within 1 year was lower in the urgent/emergency than elective TAVI group (77.2% vs. 92.2%; log rank P<0.001). Malignancy, albumin and creatinine concentrations, ejection fraction, and mean pressure gradient were associated with 1-year mortality in the urgent/emergency TAVI group.
Conclusions: Despite higher surgical risk and more comorbidities, the procedure was successfully performed in patients undergoing urgent/emergency TAVI, although it should be noted that prognosis was worse than for elective TAVI.
Keywords: Aortic stenosis; Transcatheter aortic valve implantation; Urgent/emergency status.