INCIDENCE AND PREDICTORS OF PERMANENT PACEMAKER IMPLANTATION AFTER TRANS AORTIC VALVE IMPLANTATION (TAVI) – A SINGLE CENTER EXPERIENCE

Objectives: The objective of the study is to evaluate the incidence and predictors of permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation in patients undergoing transaortic valve implantation (TAVI). Methodology: This study was conducted at the “National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) Karachi, Pakistan”. All the consecutive patients who underwent TAVI between July 2015 and February 2020 were included in the study. Patient data were extracted from Hospital TAVI Registry. We included patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS) with moderate to high surgical risk as per “society of thoracic surgeon score (STS)” and “EURO II score”, underwent TAVI. Patients were stratified into two groups based on the implantation of PPM, demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, co-morbid conditions, valve pathology, and procedural characteristics were compared between both groups. Results: Among 100 patients included only 22 patients (22%) underwent PPM implantation. The indication for implantation of PPM for all patients was complete heart block. Clinical characteristics which shows statistical significance for PPM implantation are preprocedural left ventricular dysfunction (p=0.015), right bundle branch block (RBBB) p<0.001, and left anterior hemiblock (p<0.001) noted on ECG and post-deployment valve area post-procedure (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that pre-procedure RBBB and large post-deployment valve area are independent predictors for PPM implantation in Post TAVI patients. Conclusion: The incidence of PPM implantation in patients who underwent TAVI at NICVD is 22%. Preprocedural left ventricular dysfunction, RBBB, and post-procedure large post-deployment valve area were noted to be significant predictors for PPM implantation.