Use of a Repositionable and Fully Retrievable Aortic Valve in Routine Clinical Practice: The RESPOND Study and RESPOND Extension Cohort.

OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to evaluate 1-year clinical outcomes with the Lotus valve (Boston Scientific, Marlborough, Massachusetts) in a large international, multicenter prospective registry including patients eligible for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) based on heart team consensus.

BACKGROUND: TAVR is a safe and effective treatment for severe aortic valve stenosis; however, limited data are available on TAVR with the repositionable and fully retrievable Lotus valve in unrestricted contemporary clinical practice.

METHODS: The RESPOND (Repositionable Lotus Valve System-Post-Market Evaluation of Real World Clinical Outcomes) study enrolled 1,014 patients; 996 patients were implanted with the Lotus valve (mean age 80.8 years, 50.8% female, mean STS score 6.0 ± 6.9%). The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality in the intent-to-treat population at 30 days and 1 year. An Extension cohort of 50 patients was treated with the Lotus valve with Depth Guard including a modified delivery system. Mortality and stroke were independently adjudicated. An independent core laboratory assessed echocardiographic data.

RESULTS: One-year clinical follow-up was available for 99.9% of Lotus valve-treated patients. At 1 year, the all-cause mortality rate was 11.7% and 4.1% of patients had experienced a disabling stroke. The permanent pacemaker implantation rate was 32% (37% among pacemaker-naive patients). Echocardiographic data at 1 year were available for core laboratory assessment in 62.6% of patients. Paravalvular leak was absent or trace in 94.5%, mild in 5.1%, and moderate in 0.4% of patients. Data from the Extension cohort confirmed good clinical outcomes at 30 days with an 18% permanent pacemaker rate (20% among pacemaker-naive patients).

CONCLUSIONS: One-year outcomes from the RESPOND study confirm the safety and efficacy of the Lotus valve when used in routine clinical practice. (Repositionable Lotus Valve System-Post-Market Evaluation of Real World Clinical Outcomes [RESPOND]; NCT02031302).