Worsening renal function after transcatheter aortic valve replacement and surgical aortic valve replacement

Several prior reports have investigated worsening renal function around transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures. However, in clinical practice, it seems more important to evaluate changes associated with TAVR-related procedures, including preoperative enhanced computed tomography (CT), as well as the TAVR procedure itself, as CT assessment is considered essential for safe TAVR. This study evaluated worsening renal function during the TAVR perioperative period, from the preoperative enhanced CT to 1 month after TAVR, and then compared the incidence with that in patients undergoing surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). This retrospective single-center study investigated 123 TAVR patients and 130 SAVR patients. We evaluated baseline renal function before enhanced CT in TAVR patients and before operation in SAVR patients, and again at 1 month post-operatively. We defined worsening renal function at 1 month according to three definitions: (1) an increase in serum creatinine ≥ 0.3 mg/dL or ≥ 1.5-fold from baseline or initiation of dialysis, (2) a decline in eGFR at 1 month ≥ 20% from baseline or initiation of dialysis, (3) a decline in eGFR at 1 month ≥ 30% from baseline or initiation of dialysis. TAVR patients were significantly older and had higher surgical risk scores than SAVR patients. In TAVR patients, serum creatinine levels were 1.00 ± 0.32 mg/dL at baseline and 1.01 ± 0.40 mg/dL at 1 month post-operatively (p = 0.58), while in SAVR patients, these levels were 0.99 ± 0.51 mg/dL and 0.98 ± 0.49 mg/dL, respectively (p = 0.59). In TAVR patients, 7 (5.7%), 14 (11.4%), and 3 (2.4%) patients experienced worsening renal function according to the three definitions, respectively, but there were no significant differences from those in SAVR patients, for any definition. Worsening renal function after TAVR was uncommon, and the incidence rate was comparable to that in SAVR patients, even though TAVR patients had worse baseline characteristics.