Outcomes in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement: a sex-based story of success?

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has been proven to be a valuable therapeutic option in patients with severe aortic stenosis deemed at high surgical risk (1). While female patients with aortic stenosis develop a greater degree of left ventricular hypertrophy and higher relative wall thickness (2,3), the impact of these gender related pathophysiological features on outcomes after TAVR have been studied less extensively. Available data suggests that female patients are at higher risk of bleeding and vascular complications (4,5) resulting in increased rehospitalization and mortality rates as compared to male subjects (6,7). In contrast, other studies report on either improved female or gender neutral survival rates after TAVR (8-11).