Covered Stents as a First-Line Treatment for Vascular Access Complications During Transfemoral Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Eight-Year Experience From a Single Center

We report 8-year experience with vascular access complications (VACs) after percutaneous transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). From January 2010 to January 2018, patients with iliofemoral VAC treated by an intervention following percutaneous transfemoral TAVI were included. Major VAC was defined according to the Valve Academic Research Consortium 2 classification. As first-line strategy, VACs were treated using covered nitinol stents (CS). Among 795 percutaneous transfemoral TAVI, 74 (9.3%) patients (female, 57%; 82 ± 8 years) with VAC treated by CS and/or open repair were included in this study: 59 CS cases and 15 open repair cases. Two CS patients were converted to open repair. Technical success for stent implantation was 97%. The main VAC was a persistent bleeding related to percutaneous closure device failure (72%). Thirty-day mortality in the study cohort was 5.4% (4/74), including 1 VAC-related death. One patient had postoperative lower limb ischemia successfully treated by open repair. No amputation, new-onset claudication or in-stent occlusion was recorded. Endovascular intervention using self-expandable nitinol covered stent is safe and effective as a first-line strategy for the treatment of VAC in percutaneous transfemoral TAVI. However, open repair is needed in case of unfeasibility or failure of endovascular therapy.