Causes of Death Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

BackgroundTranscatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an effective alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement in patients at high surgical risk. However, there is little published literature on the exact causes of death. Methods and ResultsThe PubMed database was systematically searched for studies reporting causes of death within and after 30 days following TAVR. Twenty‐eight studies out of 3934 results retrieved were identified. In the overall analysis, 46.4% and 51.6% of deaths were related to noncardiovascular causes within and after the first 30 days, respectively. Within 30 days of TAVR, infection/sepsis (18.5%), heart failure (14.7%), and multiorgan failure (13.2%) were the top 3 causes of death. Beyond 30 days, infection/sepsis (14.3%), heart failure (14.1%), and sudden death (10.8%) were the most common causes. All possible subgroup analyses were made. No significant differences were seen for proportions of cardiovascular deaths except the comparison between moderate (mean STS score 4 ...