Undiagnosed hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy during transcatheter aortic valve replacement: a case report

BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is indicated for severe symptomatic aortic stenosis in patients who have a very high or prohibitive surgical risk as assessed pre-procedurally by the Society of Thoracic Surgery Risk Score, EuroSCORE (II), frailty testing, and other predictors. When combined with another left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, careful consideration must be taken prior to proceeding with transcatheter aortic valve replacement because an additional masked left ventricular outflow tract pathology can lead to challenging hemodynamics in the peri-deployment phase, as reported in this case. CASE PRESENTATION: A 56-year-old Caucasian man with multiple comorbidities and severe aortic stenosis underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement under monitored anesthesia care. During the deployment phase, he developed dyspnea that progressed to pulmonary edema requiring emergent conversion to general anesthesia, orotracheal intubation, acute respiratory distress syndrome-type ventilation, and vasopressor medications. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography was performed and hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy with systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve was discovered as an underlying pathology, undetected on preoperative imaging. After treatment with beta blockers, fluid resuscitation, and alpha-1 agonists, he stabilized and was eventually discharged from our hospital without any lasting sequelae. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with aortic stenosis most often develop symmetric hypertrophy; however, a small subset has asymmetric septal hypertrophy leading to left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. In cases of severe aortic stenosis, however, evidence of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction via both symptoms and echocardiographic findings may be minimized due to extremely high afterload on the left ventricle. Diagnosing a left ventricular outflow tract obstruction as the cause of hemodynamic instability during transcatheter aortic valve replacement, in the absence of abnormal findings on echocardiogram preoperatively, requires a high index of clinical suspicion. The management of acute onset left ventricular outflow tract obstruction intraoperatively consists primarily of medical therapy, including rate control, adequate volume resuscitation, and avoidance of inotropes. With persistently elevated gradients, interventional treatments may be considered.