Abstract

Background: Despite improving experience and techniques, ischemic and bleeding complications after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) remain prevalent and affect survival. Recent guidelines recommend dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in the initial period after TAVI. Explorative studies have suggested DAPT is associated with higher rate of major bleeding without a decrease in thromboembolic complications. Purpose: To compare DAPT (aspirin plus clopidogrel) versus single antiplatelet therapy (SAPT) (as aspirin) alone as antithrombotic treatment following TAVI for the prevention of cerebrovascular events, bleeding events and all-cause death. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Embase and Cochrane databases, in April 2020, for both interventional or observational studies comparing DAPT with (SAPT) following TAVI. Random-effects and meta-analysis for DAPT and SAPT were performed. Results: Nine studies were included (six registry-based or unrandomized studies and three randomized clinical trials) providing a total of 19389 patients, and 631 pooled stroke or transient ischemic attack. There was no statistically difference between DAPT and SAPT for the prevention of cerebrovascular events after TAVI (pooled OR 1.04 [0.85, 1.26], P=0.04, I 2 = 0%). Similarly, there was a similar rate of all-cause mortality (pooled OR 1.07 [0.81, 1.42], P=0.33, I 2 = 50%). Furthermore, the rate of major bleeding or life-threatening events was significantly higher for the DAPT compared with SAPT group (pooled OR 1.46 [1.19, 1.78], P<0.01, I 2 = 79%), although with a considerable amount of heterogeneity between studies in the magnitude of effect. Conclusions: Our pooled data suggests that after TAVI, the clinical benefit of DAPT compared to SAPT is questionable. The POPular-TAVI trial Cohort A is expected to clarify this research question during 2020.

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