Background: The impact of gender on clinical outcomes after Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Implantation (TPVI) in patients with Congenital Heart Diseases (CHDs) is not well investigated.
Objectives: This is a retrospective single center study including 54 consecutive patients with CHDs referred to TPVI between 2010 and 2023 in our cardiac catheterization laboratory. Differences in-hospital, short- and medium-term outcomes between male and female were examined.
Methods and results: Women comprised 43% of the cohort. The mean age did not differ among the groups (female: 26 +14 yrs vs male: 27+14 yrs). No significant difference in the type of implanted valve was found according the gender (Melody Valve: 31% in females vs 40% in males, p= 0.92; Sapien 11% in females vs 16.6% in males, p= 0.85). Despite women had higher rates of peri-procedural complications (60% vs 40%, p-value =0.05), in hospital events were similar in both groups (45% in females vs 55% in males, p value =0.9). The only exitus occurred in a woman. Median medium-term follow-up was 4,1 years (range 1 months-12.2 years). Out of total 37 MACEs, 19 occured in males and 18 females, (p-value=0.18). There was no significant differences in the rate of endocarditis (33% in females vs 64% males; p-value = 0.53); re-hospitalization (48% females vs 52% in males, p-value = 0.36), arrhythmias (46% in females vs 54% in males, p-value =0.76) and re-intervention (56% females vs 44% males, p-value = 0.18) between women and men.
Conclusions : Women with CHDs undergoing TPVI present higher rate of peri- operative complications compared to men but showed comparable outcomes at medium term follow up .