Drivers of healthcare costs associated with the episode of care for surgical aortic valve replacement versus transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

Objective: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is generally more expensive than surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) due to the high cost of the device. Our objective was to understand the patient and procedural drivers of cumulative healthcare costs during the index hospitalisation for these procedures.

Design: All patients undergoing TAVI, isolated SAVR or combined SAVR+coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) at 7 hospitals in Ontario, Canada were identified during the fiscal year 2012-2013.