Factors affecting long-term survival after aortic valve replacement

To evaluate long-term outcomes of surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) due to significant aortic stenosis (AS) and assess changes in factors affecting survival during a 10-year period in patients referred for surgery from a single centre.

We evaluated 1143 patients (478 women, 665 men; mean age 61 ± 5 years) treated in the Department of Valvular Heart Disease at the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw who were referred for AVR due to significant AS in 1998-2008 and survived the surgery and the initial 30-day postoperative period. We assessed long-term survival in relation to preoperative parameters including demographic data (age, gender), clinical variables (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class, presence of a significant coronary artery stenosis, arterial hypertension, reduced left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF]), and operative parameters (prosthetic valve type: biological vs. mechanical, and the type of the surgery: isolated AVR vs. AVR combined with coronary artery bypass grafting).

Ten-year survival was worse in men compared to women (p = 0.001), with the effect of gender gradually decreasing after 3 years of follow-up. Factors affecting long-term survival included age (p = 0.0001) and NYHA class (p = 0.005) in women, and age (p = 0.0001), NYHA class (p = 0.0001), arterial hypertension (p = 0.01), reduced LVEF (p = 0.03), and the presence of significant coronary artery stenoses (p = 0.0001) in men. Evaluation of factors affecting 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year survival showed their variability mostly in men.

Long-term surgical outcomes in patients with significant AS are very good, with better survival in women compared to men, although these differences attenuated after 3 years. Factors affecting 10-year survival are different in women and men: a significant effect in women was noted only for age and preoperative NYHA class, while in men for age, NYHA class, hypertension, reduced LVEF, and the presence of significant coronary artery stenoses. During 10-year follow-up, longitudinal changes can be noted in factors affecting survival after AVR.