Transcatheter aortic valve replacement among heart transplant recipients with donor aortic valve diseases: a systematic review of the literature.

Background: Despite high surgical risk among heart transplant (HTx) recipients, who develop aortic valve diseases (AVD), transcutaneous aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has been scarcely reported as a viable option in this patient population.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify studies reporting the outcomes of HTx recipients who developed AVD of the donor heart and underwent TAVR. Studies were eligible if they provided individual-level data for HTx recipients, who underwent TAVR on the donor heart. Review articles, editorials or commentaries, studies lacking original data, or those reporting surgical valve replacement for AVD in HTx recipients were excluded.

Results: A total of 15 case reports, encompassing 15 patients, describing characteristics and outcomes of HTx recipients undergoing TAVR were included. These included 13 males and 2 females with an average age of 63.6±15 years. The indications for HTx were non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, ischemic cardiomyopathy and ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy in 42.9%, 35.7%, and 21.4% of the patients, respectively. The main indication for aortic valve replacement (AVR) among HTx recipients was aortic stenosis (73.3%). The transcutaneous approach was preferred over surgical AVR due to high surgical risk in > 50% of the patients. Both pre-TAVR transvalvular pressure gradient and the peak aortic pressure gradient decreased after the TAVR. Paravalvular leak was minimal/none to mild in all the patients post-TAVR. Most patients had an uneventful post-TAVR recovery with no recurrence of the symptoms or echocardiographic finings at a median follow-up of 6 months.

Conclusions: TAVR seems to be a viable option for HTx recipients who develop donor aortic valve diseases. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on the long-term survivability of the replaced aortic valves and the clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of HTx recipients undergoing TAVR.