Transcatheter aortic valve replacement in India—Early experience, challenges, and outcomes from a single center

BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing popularity of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), only about 10,000 TAVR cases have been performed in Asia to date. The procedure is still in a nascent stage in India with very few centers offering this state-of-art technique. Here, we present the early results of TAVR experience at our center. METHODS: Forty-nine patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS) were referred to our center for TAVR from November 2015 to February 2018. Twenty-five patients underwent TAVR at our conventional cardiac catheterization laboratory under local or general anesthesia, with standby surgical team support. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 72.0 ± 8.1 years. The mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons score was 13.8 ± 10.2. Baseline mean ejection fraction was 50.3 ± 14.8%. Baseline mean aortic valve gradient was 55.8 ± 24.7 mmHg. There was one procedural-related death. Two of the patients required urgent surgery: one for contained annular rupture and one underwent vascular repair for femoral artery occlusion. Mild and moderate paravalvular leak was seen in 11 and 3 patients, respectively. Four patients (16%) required permanent pacemaker. Eighty percent were in New York Heart Association class I-II at discharge. One-year all-cause mortality was 8%, with no hospitalizations or major adverse cardiac event during the 1-year follow-up. CONCLUSION: Our early data clearly shows that in our country, TAVR is a good alternative for symptomatic severe AS for high surgical risk cases. Large-scale multicenter studies are required to study the real impact of TAVR in the Indian scenario. During initial years of implementation of a nationwide TAVR program, it may be prudent to focus on creating TAVR Centers of Excellence by developing an ideal hub and spokes model.