Factors Influencing the Outcome of Stereotactic Radiosurgery in Patients With Five or More Brain Metastases

Background: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for patients with 5 or more brain metastases (BMets) is a matter of debate. We report our results with that approach and the factors influencing outcome. Methods: In the 103 patients who underwent SRS for the treatment of 5 or more BMets, primary histology was non-small-cell lung cancer (57% of patients). All patients were grouped by Karnofsky performance status and recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) classification. In our cohort, 72% of patients had uncontrolled extracranial disease, and 28% had stable or responding systemic disease. Previous irradiation for 1–4 BMets had been given to 56 patients (54%). The mean number of treated BMets was 7 (range: 5–19), and the median cumulative BMets volume was 2 cm3 (range: 0.06–28 cm3). Results: Multivariate analyses showed that stable extracranial disease (p < 0.001) and RPA (p = 0.022) were independent prognostic factors for overall survival (OS). Moreover, a cumulative treated BMets volume of less than 6 cm3 (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.54; p = 0.006; 95% confidence interval: 1.30 to 4.99) was associated with better OS. The total number of BMets had no effect on survival (p = 0.206). No variable was found to be predictive of local control. The RPA was significant (p = 0.027) in terms of distant recurrence. Conclusions: Our study suggests that SRS is a reasonable option for the management of patients with 5 or more BMets, especially with a cumulative treatment volume of less than 6 cm3

Surgical Treatment of Patients With Infective Endocarditis After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Background: The optimal treatment of patients developing infective endocarditis (IE) after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is uncertain. Objectives: The goal of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with TAVI-IE treated with cardiac surgery and antibiotics (IE-CS) compared with patients treated with antibiotics alone (IE-AB). Methods: Crude and inverse probability of treatment weighting analyses were applied for the treatment effect of cardiac surgery vs medical therapy on 1-year all-cause mortality in patients with definite TAVI-IE. The study used data from the Infectious Endocarditis after TAVI International Registry. Results: Among 584 patients, 111 patients (19%) were treated with IE-CS and 473 patients (81%) with IE-AB. Compared with IE-AB, IE-CS was not associated with a lower in-hospital mortality (HRunadj: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.58-1.25) and 1-year all-cause mortality (HRunadj: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.64-1.22) in the crude cohort. After adjusting for selection and immortal time bias, IE-CS compared with IE-AB was also not associated with lower mortality rates for in-hospital mortality (HRadj: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.80-1.05) and 1-year all-cause mortality (HRadj: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.84-1.07). Results remained similar when patients with and without TAVI prosthesis involvement were analyzed separately. Predictors for in-hospital and 1-year all-cause mortality included logistic EuroSCORE I, Staphylococcus aureus, acute renal failure, persistent bacteremia, and septic shock. Conclusions: In this registry, the majority of patients with TAVI-IE were treated with antibiotics alone. Cardiac surgery was not associated with an improved all-cause in-hospital or 1-year mortality. The high mortality of patients with TAVI-IE was strongly linked to patients’ characteristics, pathogen, and IE-related complications