Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to estimate temporal trends in clinical presentation and short-term outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with self-expandable prostheses in South America through a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational data.

Methods

We comprehensively searched for articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals and for abstracts presented in medical conferences of the region from September 1, 2008, to June 29, 2020. We included single-center studies on self-expandable TAVR populations with ≥ 10 patients from South America.

Results

A total of 28 cohorts from 6 countries pooling 1780 patients were included in a random-effects meta-analysis. Pooled estimates of age changed during time (period 2011-2015, 81.6 years; 95% confidence interval [CI] 80.7-82.4; period 2016-2018, 80.6 years; 95% CI 79.8-81.3; period 2019: 78.5 years; 95% CI 77.0-80.0; P = .0003); no other temporal trends in patient characteristics were ascertained. Temporal trends in short-term mortality pooled estimates were in-hospital mortality (11.8% [95% CI 8.2-16.7] for the period 2011-2015, 6.6% [95% CI 4.5-9.6] for the period 2016-2018, and 4.4% [95% CI 1.9-9.8] for the period 2019 [P = .007]) and 30-day mortality (12.8% [95% CI 7.7-20.4], 9.7% [95% CI 7.0-13.3], and 5.7% [95% CI 2.8-11.3], respectively [P =.044]). These associations between reporting year of the study and lower mortality remained after adjusting by age and surgical risk (multivariate meta-regression).

Conclusions

In studies reported between 2011 and 2019 in South America, we demonstrated a clear time trend toward reduction of short-term mortality after self-expandable TAVR, independently of age and surgical risk of populations. These findings are relevant to the local reassessment of cost-effectiveness of TAVR.