Cardiac Structural Complications Following TAVR

Cardiac structural complications (CSCs) have been recently established by the Valve Academic Research Consortium 3 consensus as a combined end point including multiple life-threatening periprocedural events following transcatheter aortic valve replacement. The objective was to assess the incidence, timing, management, and clinical impact of CSCs in the contemporary transcatheter aortic valve replacement era.

Multicenter study including consecutive patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement in 18 European and Canadian centers from 2014 to 2024. According to the Valve Academic Research Consortium 3 criteria, CSCs included cardiac structure perforation, injury or compromise, new pericardial effusion, and coronary obstruction. Data was collected in a dedicated database, and patients were followed at 30 days, 1 year, and yearly thereafter.

Among a total of 10 541 patients, CSCs occurred in 221 (2.1%), with 126 (1.2%) patients exhibiting >1 CSC: 146 (1.4%) cardiac structure compromise events (annular rupture: 41.1%, left ventricular perforation: 26.0%; right ventricular perforation: 24.0%, other injuries: 8.9%), 150 (1.4%) new pericardial effusions, and 59 (0.6%) coronary obstructions. Up to 75.6% of CSCs occurred intraprocedurally, and 61 (27.6%) patients had conversion to open heart surgery. The incidence of CSCs remained similar throughout the study period (from 1.3% to 3.2%, median annual rate of 2.3%). Thirty-day mortality was 35.3% (52.5% among patients requiring conversion to surgery), with annular rupture associated with the highest (41.0%) mortality rate.

About 2% of contemporary transcatheter aortic valve replacement recipients presented CSCs, which did not decrease over time, required conversion to surgery in more than one-fourth of cases, and were associated with very high periprocedural mortality rates. Further research is needed regarding potential preventive strategies and optimal surgical bailout management.