Incidence and outcomes of emergency intraprocedural surgical conversion during transcatheter aortic valve implantation: Insights from a large tertiary care centre.

Objective: During a transcatheter aortic valve implant (TAVI) procedure, intraprocedural complications that are manageable only by conversion to emergency open-heart surgery (E-OHS) occasionally occur. Contemporary data on the incidence and outcome of TAVI patients undergoing E-OHS are scarce. This study aimed to evaluate early and midterm outcomes following E-OHS of patients undergoing TAVI in a large tertiary care centre with immediate surgical backup availability for all TAVI procedures over a 15-year period.

Methods: Data from all patients undergoing transfemoral TAVI between 2006 and 2020 at the Heart Centre Leipzig were analysed. The study time was divided into 3 periods: 2006-2010 (P1), 2011-2015 (P2) and 2016-2020 (P3). Patients were grouped according to their surgical risk (high risk: EuroSCORE II ≥ 6%; low/intermediate risk: EuroSCORE II <6%). Primary outcomes were intraprocedural and in-hospital death and 1-year survival.

Results: During the study period, a total of 6903 patients underwent transfemoral TAVI. Among them, 74 (1.1%) required E-OHS [high risk, n = 66 (89.2%); low/intermediate risk, n = 8 (10.8%)]. The rate of patients requiring E-OHS was 3.5% (20/577 patients), 1.8% (35/1967 patients) and 0.4% (19/4359 patients) in study periods P1 to P3, respectively (P < 0.001). The proportion of patients who had E-OHS who were low/intermediate risk increased considerably over time (P1:0%; P28.6%; P3:26.3%; P = 0.077). Intraprocedural deaths occurred in 10 patients (13.5%), all of whom were high-risk. In-hospital mortality was 62.1% in high-risk patients and 12.5% in low/intermediate risk patients (P = 0.007). One-year survival was 37.8% in all patients undergoing E-OHS, 31.8% in high-risk patients and 87.5% in low/intermediate risk patients (log-rank P = 0.002).

Conclusions: In-hospital and 1-year survival rates following E-OHS are higher in low/intermediate risk than in high-risk patients undergoing TAVI. An on-site cardiac surgical department with immediately available E-OHS capabilities is an important component of the TAVI team.