NYMC Faculty Publications
Impact of Frailty on Mortality, Readmissions, and Resource Utilization After TAVI
DOI
10.1016/j.amjcard.2020.03.047
Journal Title
The American Journal of Cardiology
First Page
120
Last Page
127
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-15-2020
Department
Medicine
Abstract
With aging population and preponderance of severe aortic stenosis occurring in elderly patients, the number of transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVI) performed in the elderly are growing. Frailty is common in the elderly and is known to be associated with worse outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the impact of frailty on hospital readmissions rates after TAVI. We used the 2016 Nationwide Readmission Database and categorized patients who underwent TAVI low, intermediate, and high frailty status. The primary outcome was 6-months readmission rates across the 3 frailty categories. Secondary outcomes included causes of readmissions, in-hospital mortality and cost of care. STATA 16.0 was used for survey-specific statistical tests. Of 20,504 patients who underwent TAVI, 58.9% were low-, 39.6% were intermediate-, and 1.5% were in the high-frailty group. Overall in-hospital mortality was 1.9% (n = 396), and was 0.6%, 3.3%, and 16.8% (p <0.01) with increasing frailty. Of the 20,108 patients who survived to discharge, 6,427 (32%) patients were readmitted within 6-months after TAVI. Readmission rates increased across the categories from 27.9% in low, 37.6% in intermediate and 51.1% in high frailty group (p <0.01). While cardiac causes (mostly heart failure) were the predominant readmission etiologies across frailty categories (low: 51.2%, intermediate: 34.1%, high: 27.2%), rates of infectious and injury-related readmissions increased (low: 11%, intermediate: 30%, high: 45%). Mortality during readmissions also worsened from 0.8%, 5.3%, and 8.5% (p <0.01). Over 40% of patients undergoing TAVI were of intermediate-high frailty. In conclusion, an increasing frailty was associated with significantly worse postprocedure mortality, readmissions, and related mortality.
Recommended Citation
Malik, A. H., Yandrapalli, S., Zaid, S., Shetty, S., Athar, A., Gupta, R., Aronow, W. S., Goldberg, J. B., Cohen, M. B., Ahmad, H., Lansman, S. L., & Tang, G. H. (2020). Impact of Frailty on Mortality, Readmissions, and Resource Utilization After TAVI. The American Journal of Cardiology, 127, 120-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2020.03.047