Comparison of safety and periprocedural complications of transfemoral aortic valve replacement under local anaesthesia: minimalist versus complete Heart Team

AIMS: The aim of the study was to evaluate peri-interventional complications and in-hospital complications in different team settings when performing transfemoral aortic valve replacement (TAVR) under local anaesthesia. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed TAVR under local anaesthesia with a minimalist Heart Team consisting of two interventional cardiologists, an echocardiographer and two cardiac catheterisation laboratory nurses. In August 2015, new guidelines for TAVR were issued by the National Federal Joint Committee. In accordance with these guidelines, we began to perform TAVR using a complete Heart Team, consisting of two interventional cardiologists, an echocardiographer, a cardiac surgeon, an anaesthesiologist, a cardiovascular perfusionist, two cardiac catheterisation laboratory nurses, a surgical nurse and an anaesthetist nurse. In this study, we retrospectively analysed periprocedural and in-hospital outcomes. Two hundred and ninety-two (55.1%) patients were treated by the minimalist Heart Team, whereas 238 (44.9%) were treated by the complete Heart Team. There were no significant differences in periprocedural (1.4% vs. 1.3%, p=1.0) and in-hospital mortality (4.8% vs. 5.0%, p=0.9) as well as in conversion to open heart (0.3% vs. 0.8%, p=0.59) or immediate vascular surgery (0.3% vs. 2.1%, p=0.1) for minimalist versus complete Heart Team, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: TAVR under local anaesthesia can be safely performed by a minimalist Heart Team. We did not observe any differences in fatal periprocedural complications and mortality when compared with those of a complete Heart Team.