Feasibility and safety of transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation performed with a percutaneous coronary intervention-like approach

Background. - Transfemoral percutaneous transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TF-TAVI) is a safe, reproducible and established procedure, mainly performed under local anaesthesia, which is mostly administered and monitored by a dedicated anaesthesia team (regular approach). Our centre has developed a standardized pathway of care, and eligible patients are selected for a minimalist TF-TAVI, entirely managed by operators without the presence of the anaesthesia team in the operating room, like most interventional coronary procedures ("percutaneous coronary intervention-like" approach [PCI approach]). Aim. - To compare the safety and efficacy of TF-TAVI performed with the PCI approach versus the regular approach. Methods. - The analysis population comprised all patients who underwent TF-TAVI with the PCI or regular approach in our institution from November 2016 to July 2019. The two co-primary endpoints were early safety composite and early efficacy composite at 30 days as defined by the Valve Academic Research Consortium-2. The PCI (n = 137) and Regular (n = 221) approaches were compared using the propensity score based method of inverse probability of treatment weighting. Results. - No differences were observed after comparison of TAVI performed with the PCI or regular approach regarding the composite safety endpoint (7.3% vs. 11.3%; odds ratio 0.63, 95% confidence interval 0.37 to 1.07; P = 0.086) or the composite efficacy endpoint (4.4% vs. 6.3%; odds ratio 0.78, 95% confidence interval 0.41 to 1.49; P = 0.45). Conclusions. - This study suggests that the efficacy and safety of TF-TAVI entirely managed by a PCI approach for selected patients are not different to those when TF-TAVI is performed with the attendance of a full anaesthesia care team. The PCI approach appears to be a safe and efficient clinical pathway, providing an appropriate and rational utilization of anaesthesiology resources, and could be used for the majority of TF-TAVI procedures. (c) 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.