Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Global TAVR Activity: The COVID-TAVI Study

Xavier Armario, Jennifer Carron, Andrew J. Simpkin, Mohamed Elhadi, Ciara Kennedy, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, Sabine Bleiziffer, Thierry Lefèvre, Alexander Wolf, Thomas Pilgrim, Pedro A. Villablanca, Daniel J. Blackman, Nicolas M. Van Mieghem, Christian Hengstenberg, Martin J. Swaans, Bernard D. Prendergast, Tiffany Patterson, Marco Barbanti, John G. Webb, Miles BehanJon Resar, Mao Chen, David Hildick-Smith, Mark S. Spence, David Zweiker, Rodrigo Bagur, Rui Teles, Flavio L. Ribichini, Dariusz Jagielak, Duk Woo Park, Ran Kornowski, Joanna J. Wykrzykowska, Matjaz Bunc, Rodrigo Estévez-Loureiro, Karl Poon, Matthias Götberg, Raban V. Jeger, Hüseyin Ince, Erik J.S. Packer, Marco Angelillis, Luis Nombela-Franco, Yingqiang Guo, Mikko Savontaus, Abdulrahman M. Al-Moghairi, Catalina Andreea Parasca, Chad Kliger, David Roy, Levente Molnár, Mariana Silva, Jonathon White, Masanori Yamamoto, Pedro Carrilho-Ferreira, Stefan Toggweiler, Vassileios Voudris, Yohei Ohno, Inês Rodrigues, Radosław Parma, Soledad Ojeda, Kostas Toutouzas, Ander Regueiro, Marek Grygier, Khaled AlMerri, Ignacio Cruz-González, Viliam Fridrich, José M. de la Torre Hernández, Stephane Noble, Petr Kala, Lluis Asmarats, Ibrahim Halil Kurt, Johan Bosmans, Martins Erglis, Ivan Casserly, Dounia Iskandarani, Ravinay Bhindi, Joelle Kefer, Wei Hsian Yin, Liesbeth Rosseel, Hyo Soo Kim, Stephen O'Connor, Farrel Hellig, Matias Sztejfman, Oscar Mendiz, Andres M. Pineda, Ashok Seth, Elton Pllaha, Fabio S. de Brito, Vilhelmas Bajoras, Mohammed A. Balghith, Michael Lee, Guering Eid-Lidt, Bert Vandeloo, Vinicius Daher Vaz, Mirvat Alasnag, Gian Paolo Ussia, Edgar Tay, Jorge Mayol, Sengottuvelu Gunasekaran, Gennaro Sardella, Wacin Buddhari, Hsien Li Kao, Antonio Dager, Apostolos Tzikas, Ingibjörg J. Gudmundsdottir, Ahmad Edris, Luis Abel Gutiérrez Jaikel, Eduardo A. Arias, Mohammed Al-Hijji, Mehmet Ertürk, César Conde-Vela, Darko Boljević, Adolfo Ferrero Guadagnoli, Toomas Hermlin, Ahmed M. ElGuindy, Moysés de Oliveira Lima-Filho, Luciano de Moura Santos, Luis Perez, Gabriel Maluenda, Ali Rıza Akyüz, Imad A. Alhaddad, Haitham Amin, Chak Yu So, Arif A. Al Nooryani, Carlos Vaca, Juan Albistur, Quang Ngoc Nguyen, Dabit Arzamendi, Eberhard Grube, Thomas Modine, Didier Tchétché, Kentaro Hayashida, Azeem Latib, Raj R. Makkar, Nicolo Piazza, Lars Søndergaard, John William McEvoy, Darren Mylotte*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)
    138 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Background: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected health care systems. Patients in need of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are especially susceptible to treatment delays. 

    Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global TAVR activity. 

    Methods: This international registry reported monthly TAVR case volume in participating institutions prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2018 to December 2021). Hospital-level information on public vs private, urban vs rural, and TAVR volume was collected, as was country-level information on socioeconomic status, COVID-19 incidence, and governmental public health responses. 

    Results: We included 130 centers from 61 countries, including 65,980 TAVR procedures. The first and second pandemic waves were associated with a significant reduction of 15% (P < 0.001) and 7% (P < 0.001) in monthly TAVR case volume, respectively, compared with the prepandemic period. The third pandemic wave was not associated with reduced TAVR activity. A greater reduction in TAVR activity was observed in Africa (−52%; P = 0.001), Central-South America (−33%; P < 0.001), and Asia (−29%; P < 0.001). Private hospitals (P = 0.005), urban areas (P = 0.011), low-volume centers (P = 0.002), countries with lower development (P < 0.001) and economic status (P < 0.001), higher COVID-19 incidence (P < 0.001), and more stringent public health restrictions (P < 0.001) experienced a greater reduction in TAVR activity. 

    Conclusions: TAVR procedural volume declined substantially during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Africa, Central-South America, and Asia. National socioeconomic status, COVID-19 incidence, and public health responses were associated with treatment delays. This information should inform public health policy in case of future global health crises.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)374-387
    Number of pages14
    JournalJACC: Cardiovascular Interventions
    Volume17
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 12-Feb-2024

    Keywords

    • aortic valve stenosis
    • coronavirus disease 2019
    • transcatheter aortic valve replacement
    • valvular heart disease

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