Minimally Invasive Versus Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: An Updated Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review.

Objective: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has arisen as a viable alternative to surgery. Similarly, minimally invasive surgical aortic valve replacement (mini-SAVR), such as ministernotomy and minithoracotomy, have also gained interest. We conducted a pairwise meta-analysis to further investigate the efficacy of TAVR versus mini-SAVR.

Methods: Medical databases were comprehensively searched for studies comparing TAVR with a mini-SAVR modality, defined as minimally invasive aortic surgery, ministernotomy, minithoracotomy, or rapid-deployment or sutureless SAVR. Random-effects meta-analysis was conducted using the generic inverse variance method. Primary outcomes included 30-day mortality, midterm mortality, 30-day stroke, acute kidney injury (AKI), paravalvular leak (PVL), new permanent pacemaker (PPM), new-onset atrial fibrillation, and postintervention mean and peak valve pressure gradients and were pooled as risk ratio (RR), mean difference (MD), or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results: A total of 5,071 patients (2,505 mini-SAVR vs 2,566 TAVR) from 12 studies were pooled. Compared with TAVR, mini-SAVR showed significantly lower rates of both 30-day (RR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.42 to 0.96, = 0.03) and midterm mortality at 4 years of follow-up (HR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.67 to 0.87, < 0.001). Furthermore, mini-SAVR was protective against 30-day PVL (RR = 0.07, 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.13, < 0.001) and new PPM (RR = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.11 to 0.57, < 0.001). Conversely, TAVR was protective against 30-day AKI (RR = 1.67, 95% CI: 1.20 to 2.32, = 0.002) and postinterventional mean gradients (MD = 1.65, 95% CI: 0.25 to 3.05, = 0.02). No difference was observed for 30-day stroke (RR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.56 to 1.24, = 0.38), new-onset atrial fibrillation (RR = 1.79, 95% CI: 0.93 to 3.44, = 0.08), or postinterventional peak gradients (MD = 3.24, 95% CI: -1.10 to 7.59, = 0.14).

Conclusions: Compared with TAVR, mini-SAVR was protective against 30-day and midterm mortality, 30-day PVL, and new permanent pacemaker, while TAVR patients had lower 30-day AKI. Future randomized trials comparing the efficacy of mini-SAVR approaches with TAVR are needed.