Patient prosthesis mismatch: Does it matter?

In this podcast Heart editor in chief Catherine Otto, discusses patient prothesis mismatch with Professor Philippe Pibarot, Directeur, Chaire de Recherche du Canada sur les Maladies Valvulaires Cardiaques, after he presented a commentary on the issue at the Transcatheter Valve Therapies meeting in Vancouver, Canada on June 5, 2014.

Aortic valve stenosis is prevalent in the elderly and valve replacement for severe symptomatic obstruction improves symptoms and prolongs life. However, some patients have persistent symptoms after intervention because the functional valve area of the prosthetic valve is too small for the patient’s body size, a situation termed patient-prosthesis mismatch (PPM).

The hemodynamics of PPM have been well described but the actual clinical impact of PPM is controversial. In the June issue of Heart, Dr Price and colleagues (heartjnl-2013-305118) report that PPM was associated with decreased survival and persistent symptoms only in patients with a low left ventricular ejection fraction who were under age 70 years at the time of valve surgery. In older adults, although PPM was associated with impaired regression of LV hypertrophy, PPM was not associated with increased mortality or heart failure symptoms.

This data has important implications for clinical management suggesting that additional procedures to allow implantation of a larger prosthesis may not be necessary in older adults or in younger patients with normal left ventricular function.

See also:

The impact of prosthesis–patient mismatch after aortic valve replacement varies according to age at operation http://goo.gl/JNX42v