Surgical Risk Scoring in TAVR: Still Needed? A Metaregression Analysis

Several randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) against surgical aortic valve replacement have been published to date. The fact that higher risk populations were implemented first does not necessarily mean that they benefit more from a TAVR procedure. We performed meta-analysis of the 8 randomized clinical trials performing TAVR for both mortality and stroke outcomes. Meta-regression was used to evaluate the association between mean surgical risk using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) score and hazard ratio observed in each of the trials. Overall, TAVR was associated with a significant reduction of both mortality and stroke across the whole spectrum of patients enrolled, with no evidence of significant heterogeneity. Metaregression analysis does not suggest a statistically significant association between STS score and hazard ratio for both mortality and stroke. This observation suggests reconsidering the use of risk scores to prioritize TAVR utilization in higher risk patients, while more focus should be done on patient's life expectancy related to TAVR durability.