• S Chiu Wong, Sumeet Pawar, Robert M Minutello, Evelyn M Horn, Nikolaos J Skubas, Richard B Devereux, and Arash Salemi.
• Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY. Electronic address: scwong@med.cornell.edu.
• J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 2015 Nov 1; 150 (5): 1111-7.

ObjectivesThe study objective was to evaluate the impact of preimplantation balloon valvuloplasty on procedural outcomes in high-risk or no-option patients with aortic stenosis undergoing Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, Calif) Sapien valve placement. Paravalvular aortic regurgitation has been associated with long-term mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Whether omitting preimplant balloon valvuloplasty affects paravalvular aortic regurgitation after Edwards Sapien transcatheter aortic valve replacement is currently unknown.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical outcome of 121 consecutive patients undergoing transapical (N = 50) or transfemoral (N = 71) Edwards Sapien transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Routinely, no preimplant balloon valvuloplasty was performed in transapical procedure as opposed to uniform preimplant balloon valvuloplasty in transfemoral cases. The incidence and severity of total and paravalvular aortic regurgitation and 30-day clinical outcomes were compared between the 2 cohorts.ResultsThe average patient's age was 84.4 years, with a higher prevalence of smoking history (68% vs 42%, P = .005) and peripheral vascular disease (38% vs 20%, P = .03) in the patients undergoing transapical replacement. The preprocedural transthoracic echocardiographic and computed tomography findings were similar between the 2 cohorts. After transcatheter aortic valve replacement, the incidence of mild to moderate total aortic regurgitation (42% transfemoral vs 38% transapical), paravalvular aortic regurgitation (39% transfemoral vs 30% transapical), device success (88.7% transfemoral vs 94.0% transapical), and 30-day composite end points (9.9% transfemoral vs 14.0% transapical) were comparable in both groups. Multivariate regression analysis revealed male gender (odds ratio, 2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-6.35; P = .02) but not preimplant balloon valvuloplasty as an independent predictor for mild or greater total aortic regurgitation.ConclusionsCompared with transapical transcatheter aortic valve replacement without preimplant balloon valvuloplasty, preimplant balloon valvuloplasty before transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve replacement resulted in a similar degree of prosthesis-related regurgitation, device success, and 30-day composite safety outcomes.Copyright © 2015 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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