Procedural Outcome and Midterm Survival of Lower Risk Transfemoral Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Patients Treated With the SAPIEN XT or SAPIEN 3 Device

Over the years increasing experience and technical device improvements in transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) have led to treatment of patients with lower surgical risks. Specifically for this population, device performance and longer term outcome are of great importance. In this single center, we performed a retrospective analysis of 515 consecutive patients with low- to intermediate surgical risk (STS-PROM ≤8), who underwent transfemoral TAVI between January 2009 and February 2017 with the SXT and ES3 prostheses, and we assessed procedural outcome and procedural and 3-year survival. Mean age (82 years in both groups, p = 0.344) and STS-PROM risk score (3.862 vs 3.992, p = 0.154) did not differ between the ES3 and SXT group. ES3-treated patients showed favorable procedural outcomes, with significantly higher device success (90% vs 73%, p  <0.0001) and less paravalvular leakage (7% vs 13%, p  <0.0001). Procedural mortality (0.87% vs 1.45%, p = 0.245) and the very low rate of permanent pacemaker implantations (7.4% vs 6.1%, p = 0.234) did not differ significantly. Three-year survival was 87% in the ES3 vs 80% in the SXT group (log-rank p = 0.385). In conclusion, we showed excellent survival and procedural outcomes in patients receiving a transfemoral TAVI with either the SAPIEN 3 or the SAPIEN XT device. The newer SAPIEN 3 even outperforms the SAPIEN XT in terms of less major bleeding complications, substantially higher device success rates, and less paravalvular leakage, with the permanent pacemaker implantation rate being very low in both groups. Survival curves show a nonsignificant trend toward better midterm survival in the ES3 group