Survival of transcatheter mitral valve repair compared with surgical and conservative treatment in high-surgical-risk patients

Objectives The goal of this study was to compare survival between transcatheter mitral valve (MV) repair using MitraClip system (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, California), MV-surgery, and conservative treatment in high-surgical-risk patients symptomatic with severe mitral valve regurgitation (MR). Background Up to 50% of patients with symptomatic severe MR are denied for surgery due to high perioperative risk. Transcatheter MV repair might be an alternative. Methods Consecutive patients (n = 139) treated with transcatheter MV repair were included. Comparator surgically (n = 53) and conservatively (n = 59) treated patients were identified retrospectively. Surgical risk was based on the logistic European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (log EuroSCORE) or the presence of relevant risk factors, as judged by the heart team. Results The log EuroSCORE was higher in the transcatheter MV repair group (23.9 ± 16.1%) than in the surgically (14.2 ± 8.9%) and conservatively (18.7 ± 13.2%, p < 0.0001) treated patients. Left ventricular ejection fraction was higher in surgical patients (43.9 ± 14.4%, p = 0.003), with similar values for the transcatheter MV repair (36.8 ± 15.3%) and conservatively treated (34.5 ± 16.5%) groups. After 1 year of follow-up, the transcatheter MV repair and surgery groups showed similar survival rates (85.8% and 85.2%, respectively), whereas 67.7% of conservatively treated patients survived. The same trend was observed after the second and third years. After weighting for propensity score and controlling for risk factors, both the transcatheter MV repair (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.22 to 0.78, p = 0.006) and surgical (HR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.30 to 0.88, p = 0.014) groups showed better survival than the conservatively treated group. The transcatheter MV repair and surgical groups did not differ (HR: 1.25, 95% CI: 0.72 to 2.16, p = 0.430). Conclusions Despite a higher log EuroSCORE, high-surgical-risk patients with symptomatic severe MR treated with transcatheter MV repair show similar survival rates compared with surgically treated patients, with both displaying survival benefit compared with conservative treatment.