Comparable survival for pacemaker wearers after heart valve replacement


Date:
October 4, 2021
Source:
Karolinska Institutet
Summary:
Researchers have examined long-term outcomes in patients who
received pacemaker implantations after transcatheter aortic valve
replacement through their groin. The result showed no significant
difference in mortality for the patients with pacemakers compared
to those without.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have examined long-term
outcomes in patients who received pacemaker implantations after
transcatheter aortic valve replacement through their groin. The result
showed no significant difference in mortality for the patients with
pacemakers compared to those without. The study is published in the
journal JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.


==========================================================================
The use of transcatheter aortic valve replacement has increased as a
treatment option for severe narrowing of the aortic valve, the heart's
primary valve for regulating blood flow to the body's main artery.

In this procedure, doctors insert a catheter from the groin through
the main artery to the heart and replace the faulty aortic value with
an artificial one that normalizes the blood flow. The technique is an alternative to open-chest surgery.

A potential complication of aortic valve replacement is the need for a permanent pacemaker implantation to stabilize the heart rhythm. This complication has turned out to be more common after transcatheter
operations than during open-chest surgery and has in previous studies
been linked to increased mortality. Despite this, there has been a
lack of larger studies on the effect of pacemaker implantation after transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

In this study, the researchers compared the survival rate of all patients
who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement through groin leg incisions at Swedish hospitals between 2008 and 2018. A total of 3,420
patients were included, of whom 481 (14 percent) received a permanent
pacemaker within 30 days after surgery. The patients were on average 81
years old and followed for up to 11.8 years (2.7 years on average).

The study showed that the patients who received a pacemaker did not
have a significantly higher risk of death, heart failure or endocarditis
(a severe heart infection) compared to those who did not need a pacemaker.

"Our study contributes to understanding the impact of pacemaker
implantation after transcatheter aortic valve replacement, which is
becoming increasingly important as the use of this method expands to
include younger and low-risk patients with a long life expectancy,"
says Natalie Glaser, researcher at the Department of Molecular Medicine
and Surgery at Karolinska Institutet and the study's corresponding author.

More research is needed to determine if the findings are replicable in
a wider patient population that includes younger and low-risk patients.

The study has been financed with the help of donations from the Swedish
Heart- Lung Foundation, the Swedish Society of Medicine, Region
Stockholm, the Capio Research Foundation, the Eva and Oscar Ahre'n
Research Foundation and the Seraphim Hospital Foundation.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Karolinska_Institutet. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Andreas Ru"ck, Nawzad Saleh, Natalie Glaser. Outcomes following
permanent
pacemaker implantation after transcatheter aortic valve replacement:
SWEDEHEART observational study. JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions,
Oct.

4, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcin.2021.07.043 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211004143758.htm

--- up 4 weeks, 4 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)