Do patients undergoing MitraClip implantation require routine ICU admission?

Objectives: Because of its reduced invasiveness, MitraClip (Abbott Vascular, Menlo Park, CA) therapy usually is reserved for patients with extreme left ventricular dysfunction or severe comorbidity contraindicating surgery. The appropriate post-procedural care in this high-risk population is yet to be defined. In this study, the postoperative course of such patients is reported, focusing on early complications and need for intensive care unit (ICU) management.

Effect of severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction on hospital outcome after transcatheter aortic valve implantation or surgical aortic valve replacement: results from a propensity-matched population of the Italian OBSERVANT multicenter study.

Objective: Despite demonstration of the superior outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) versus optimal medical therapy for severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction, studies comparing TAVI and surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) in this high-risk group have been lacking.

Methods: We performed propensity matching for age, gender, baseline comorbidities, previous interventions, priority at hospital admission, frailty score, New York Heart Association class, EuroSCORE, and associated cardiac diseases. Next, the 30-day mortality and procedure-related morbidity of 162 patients (81 TAVI vs 81 AVR) with severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction (ejection fraction ≤ 35%) were analyzed at the Italian National Institute of Health.

Results differ between transaortic and open surgical aortic valve replacement in women.

Background: Despite the well-known impact of female sex on outcome after surgical aortic valve replacement (sAVR), few studies investigated its role after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).

Methods: After propensity-matching for age, baseline comorbidities, previous interventions, priority, frailty score, New York Heart Association class, left ventricular function and associated cardiac diseases, hospital mortality, and procedure-related morbidities of 388 women (194 TAVR versus 194 sAVR)-of 5,231 patients enrolled in 70 centers participating in this prospective multicenter national registry-were analyzed at a central management unit of the Italian National Institute of Health.

Results: Although hospital mortality was comparable (4.