Study: TAVR safer than surgery in low-risk heart failure patients

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures with self-expanding systems resulted in higher survival rates for patients at lower risk for surgery when compared to surgical aortic valve replacement procedures, according to a study released this month. Results from the study, which compared Medtronic‘s (NYSE:MDT) self-expanding CoreValve TAVR system, were published in JAMA Cardiology this month. The retrospective analysis compared patients from the CoreValve U.S. pivotal high-risk trial of patients with STS PROM scores of 7% or less who either underwent TAVR procedures or surgery, with a median STS Prom score of 5.3% for both groups. All-cause mortality rates were 15% among lower-risk TAVR patients at 2 years versus a rate of 26.3% for those who received surgical AVR procedures, according to the study. Rate of stroke was similar at 2 years. “Surgical [AVR] was associated with more life-threatening bleeding, [atrial fibrillation], acute kidney injury and patient-prosthesis mismatch, all of which have been associated with increased early and longer-term mortality. Survival is influenced by the balance of these effects, which tend to favor TAVR in this analysis,” researchers wrote, according to a report from Healio. Both the TAVR and surgical groups showed improvements in self-reported quality of life scores and no significant difference in medical benefit was reported at 2 years, according to the report. “Generation matters, as both the balloon-expa...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Tags: Cardiac Implants Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Medtronic Source Type: news