Abstract

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics and operative and 7-year results of aortic valve replacement in a cohort of patients older than 80 years. Materials and methods: Retrospective descriptive study of 75 consecutive patients older than 80 years of age who underwent exclusive aortic valve replacement between 2007 and 2019 at the Guillermo Grant Benavente Hospital. Demographic, clinical, echocardiographic characteristics, operative risk, surgeries, complications and operative mortality and long-term survival until March 15, 2021 are studied. Results: The mean age of the cohort was 83.05 ± 2.9 years (range 80-95) and 43 patients were women (57.3%). The predominant valve lesion was aortic stenosis (89.3%). Ten patients had an associated coronary artery disease (13.3%) and 2 had active endocarditis. The risk of operative mortality calculated by EuroSCORE additive, logistic, II and STS score was 7.58 ± 1.8; 9.88 ± 6.5%; 3.72 ± 3.5% and 4.27 ± 3.2%, respectively. A biological prosthesis was used in 70 (92%) patients. There were 31 operative complications and 11 (14.7%) patients died. The mean follow-up was 7.1 years (range 2-14), during which 28 patients died. Survival at 1, 3, and 5 years was 82, 76, 66 and 48%, respectively. Conclusions: Aortic valve replacement surgery in octogenarians in our setting is a rare procedure. The observed mortality was higher than that estimated by the risk scales. Surgical valve replacement is an alternative treatment for aortic valve disease in selected patients. Strategies to improve results should be evaluated.