Structural Heart Interventions During COVID-19

Abstract

The spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic across the globe and the United States presented unprecedented challenges with dawn of new policies to reserve resources and protect the public. One of the major policies adopted by hospitals across the nations were postponement of non-emergent procedures such as transaortic valve replacement (TAVR), left atrial appendage closure device (LAAC), MitraClip and CardioMEMS. Guidelines were based mainly on the avoidable clinical outcomes occurring during COVID-19 era. As our understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 evolved, advanced cardiac procedures may safely continue through careful advanced coordination. We aim to highlight the new guidelines published by different major cardiovascular societies, and discuss solutions to safely perform procedures to improve outcomes in a patient population with high acuity of illness during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

National Trends of Structural Heart Disease Interventions from 2016 to 2020 in the United States and the Associated Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

“…To provide advanced cardiac care to patients during the pandemic, we speculate institutions adapted and successfully triaged patients for procedures. The decline of SHD procedure rates have been reported in several studies in the US and globally 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 . However, nationwide analysis of trends in SHD interventions particularly following the initial phase of the pandemic has not been reported.…”