Background: Vascular complications after TAVI are frequent, and may be associated with unfavorable prognosis. The objective of the current analysis was to evaluate the frequency and trends in access site related complications in a single center experience.
Methods: Consecutive patients form a single center prospective registry undergoing trans-femoral TAVI procedures were analyzed. The incidence of major and minor vascular complications according to the VARC-2 criteria and the impact of the learning curve on outcome were analyzed.
Results: A total of 139 consecutive patients with trans-femoral TAVI were included in the current study. There were 31 patients with vascular complications (22.3%). Of them, 12 patients (8.6%) had major vascular complications, and 19 patients (13.7%) had minor vascular complications according to the VARC-2 criteria. There was a strong trend towards an association between the operators’ experience (first 70 patients vs. last 69 patients) and the incidence of major vascular complications (12.8% vs. 4.3%; p=0.074). While only 21% of patients with vascular complications were successfully managed by the interventional cardiologists in the first 70 patients, all of the vascular complications were successfully treated in the cath lab by the interventional cardiologists in the following 69 patients (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: Vascular complications are one of the most frequent TAVI complications. However, operators’ experience and in-house management of access site complications appear to decrease the incidence of vascular complications and improve procedural outcome. Long term outcome will be presented.
