Incidence of Long‐Term Structural Valve Dysfunction and Bioprosthetic Valve Failure After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

BACKGROUND: Long‐term data on durability of currently available transcatheter heart valves are sparse. We sought to assess the incidence of long‐term (8‐year) structural valve dysfunction and bioprosthetic valve failure in a cohort of patients with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) who reached at least 5‐year follow‐up. METHODS AND RESULTS: Consecutive patients with at least 5‐year follow‐up available undergoing TAVR from June 4, 2007 to March 30, 2012 were included. Structural valve dysfunction and bioprosthetic valve failure were defined according to newly standardized European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions/European Society of Cardiology/European Association for Cardio‐Thoracic Surgery criteria and reported as cumulative incidence function to account for the competing risk of death. A total of 288 consecutive patients with a mean age of 80.7±5.3 years and with a mean Society of Thoracic Surgery mortality score of 8.1±5.1% were analyzed. Survival rate at 8 years was 29.8%. Mean pressure gradients decreased from 53.3±15.9 mm Hg (pre‐TAVR) to 10.5±4.5 mm Hg (in‐hospital post‐TAVR) (P<0.001). There was a small, not significant, increase in the transaortic gradient throughout follow‐up. Bioprosthetic valve failure was observed in a total of 11 patients (8‐year cumulative incidence function: 4.51%; 95% confidence interval, 1.95%–8.76%). Severe and moderate structural valve dysfunctions were reported in 7 patients (8‐year cumulative incidence function: 2.39%; 95% confidence interval, 0.77%–5.71%) and 13 patients (8‐year cumulative incidence function: 5.87%; 95% confidence interval, 3.06%–9.96%), respectively. Aortic valve reintervention (redo TAVR) was successfully performed in 2 patients (0.7%) presenting with symptomatic severe restenosis and intraprosthetic regurgitation subsequent to endocarditis. CONCLUSIONS: In an aged population of patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis treated with first‐generation bioprostheses, TAVR was associated with a survival rate of 30% but low rates of bioprosthetic valve failure and structural valve dysfunction at 8 years.