Transcatheter aortic valve intervention in hospitals without cardiac surgery departments. a future scenario?

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Intervention (TAVI) was introduced in early 2000 to offer treatment to inoperable patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. In a couple of decades, the procedure resulted effective and safe also in patients with intermediate to low risk for surgery; therefore, due to the progressive ageing of the population, the clinical need for TAVI is continuously increasing and is hardly met by the availability of the procedure, the so-called "TAVI capacity". As a result, many patients encounter difficulties in being referred to TAVI centers or face long waiting list times, thus risking severe adverse events (including death) before the procedure is performed. Although contemporary guidelines and consensus documents recommend that TAVI should be only performed in hospitals with active cardiac surgery departments, starting TAVI programs also in interventional cardiac laboratories without on-site cardiac surgery could represent a way to increase TAVI capacity, thus leading to a greater number of patients being treated in less time. On the other side of the coin, such a strategy may jeopardize patient safety in case of periprocedural complications needing bailout surgery and may lead to a suboptimal multidisciplinary Heart Team evaluation. This review aims to assess and discuss available clinical data and implementation of TAVI programs in hospitals without on-site active cardiac surgery departments considering the growing unmet clinical need and technical advancement of TAVI platforms, yet not overlooking the recommendation of international scientific societies

Single-stent crossover technique from distal unprotected left main coronary artery to the left circumflex artery.

OBJECTIVES To report the clinical outcomes of single-stenting from distal unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) to the left circumflex artery (LCx). BACKGROUND Percutaneous coronary intervention of distal LMCA is usually performed by stenting into the left anterior descending artery (LAD). In some cases, stenting from LMCA to LCx alone is performed. METHODS Between April 2002 and April 2011, single-stenting with drug-eluting stents for distal unprotected LMCA disease was performed in 584 patients. Thirty-one patients underwent LMCA-LCx stenting, who were compared with the remaining 553 LMCA-LAD stented patients. RESULTS At 3-year follow-up, there were no significant differences between LMCA-LCx and LMCA-LAD stenting groups in major adverse cardiac events (24.1% vs. 19.6%; P = 0.540), cardiac death, and myocardial infarction. A trend toward higher target lesion revascularization (TLR) in the LMCA-LCx stenting group was noted. This was significant when the stented branch was only considered (18.2% vs. 3.0%; P < 0.001). In both TLR subgroups, LCx ostium was frequently involved (83.3% in LMCA-LCx vs. 66.2% in LMCA-LAD TLR subgroups; P = 0.39). The LAD ostium was more frequently involved in LMCA-LCx TLR subgroup (83.3% vs. 21.0%; P < 0.001). On the multivariable Cox regression analysis, LMCA-LCx stenting was an independent predictor of TLR for restenosis at the ostium of the stented branch (HR 6.49; 95% CI 2.27-18.53; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS TLR rate at the LCx ostium is high irrespective of LMCA-LCx or LMCA-LAD stenting. The former also seems to be associated with high TLR at the LAD ostium. It may therefore be important to evaluate alternative strategies for treating distal LMCA disease that extends into the LCx but not LAD