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-expandable (Sapien family of products, Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW)) and self-expanding valve have improved substantially from their initial introduction. Both have advantages and disadvantages and there are no current data to say one is better than the other,” Dr. Michael Reardon of the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center said in prepared remarks.
