Long-Term Functional and Structural Durability of Bioprosthetic Valves Placed in the Aortic Valve Position via Percutaneous Rout in Israel

There is limited organized “real life” data regarding the long-term structural and functional durability of transcatheter aortic valve implants, a topic of major importance. We assessed the 5-year structural and functional integrity outcomes following trans-catheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with both self-expandable and balloon-expandable prosthetic valve devices. This study included 450 consecutive patients who underwent TAVI for severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS) between September 2008 and December 2011. Data were acquired from a multicenter Israeli registry and the median follow up time was 5.6 years. In 184 patients (40.9%) who survived 5 years, prostheses displayed sustained hemodynamic performance, with average peak and mean aortic valve gradients of 16.2 ± 8.9 and 9.2 ± 6.6 mm Hg, respectively. Late structural valve deterioration was found in 22 (12.3%) patients. Of these, 16 (8.9%) experienced valve deterioration and 6 (3.3%) experienced valve failure. Among the 6 patients with bioprosthetic valve failure, only 3 underwent re-interventions. Bioprosthetic valve dysfunction occurred more frequently in patients with small valves (23 mm) and high peak and mean transvalvular gradients at baseline. In conclusion, a relatively low rate of valve deterioration or failure was noted in our long-term follow-up study after TAVI procedures with both the catheter-based self-expandable and balloon-expandable prosthetic valves.