TAVR Associated With Shorter Hospital Stay

A new study by UNC School of Medicine researchers suggests that TAVR may lead to improved patient outcomes and lower health care costs. For many years, surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) has been considered the standard of care for older adults with aortic stenosis. In recent years, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has increasingly gained acceptance as a less-invasive treatment option. But how does TAVR compare to SAVR when it comes to the metrics of average length of stay (LOS) in the hospital and discharge to home versus discharge to a skilled nursing facility? A new study led by researchers in the UNC School of Medicine's division of cardiology and published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventionsseeks to answer that question.

The study authors analyzed hospitalizations data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database for more than 13,000 adults aged 50 or older who underwent either TAVR or SAVR between 2012 and 2015. They found that the average length of stay declined among both groups of patients, but there was a significantly greater reduction among TAVR patients.

In addition, they found that during the course of the study, the percentage of TAVR patients who were being discharged to home/home health care increased from 67.7 percent to 77.4 percent, the percentage of TAVR patients who were being transferred to skilled nursing facilities decreased from 27.1 percent to 20.7 percent, and the in-hospital mortality of TAVR patients decreased from 4.2 percent to 1.6 percent.

"From 2012 to 2015, there was substantial decrease in LOS and an increase in the proportion of home discharges during the same time period among patients undergoing TAVR.

Source-Eurekalert