Mitral valve repair versus replacement with extensive annular
calcification: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Abstract
Background: Mitral annular calcification (MAC) represents an important
risk factor in mitral valve (MV) surgery. Despite several procedures
have been described, no surgical treatment of choice has been yet
established. Materials and Methods: A systematic review of the
literature and meta-analysis on patients undergoing MV surgery
associated to MAC was performed. The meta-analysis primary endpoints
were 30-day mortality and late overall and cardiac-related mortality.
Secondary endpoints were early reintervention, re-exploration for
bleeding, postoperative pacemaker implantation, cerebrovascular
accident, atrioventricular groove rupture, acute myocardial infarction
and late recurrences of mitral regurgitation (MR) or paravalvular leak
and reintervention. Primary and secondary endpoints were also evaluated
in the subgroup analysis between MV repair and replacement surgery.
Meta-regression was used to analyze the influence of decalcification and
annular reconstruction on endpoints. Results: Among 1429 papers, 25
papers studying 1327 patients were included. In the pooled analysis, the
30-day mortality event rate was 2.89% (95%Confidence Interval
[CI], 1.48%-5.57%) and 7.72% (95%CI, 2.95%-18.71%) for MV
repair and replacement respectively. At mid-term follow-up, MV repair
revealed a significantly lower incidence rate (IR) of death compared to
MV replacement (p=0.043), with a trend of higher reoperation IR compared
to replacement (p=0.051) and a trend of higher recurrent MR2+ in MV
repair (p=0.071). Annular reconstruction was associated with a
significant increase in re-exploration for bleeding at univariate
analysis, but not at the multivariate meta-regression. Conclusions: The
current meta-analysis suggests that MV repair in MAC patients may
provide better short and mid-term survival outcomes when compared to
replacement.