Abstract

Background: Advanced heart failure has extremely high mortality without advanced therapies (left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation or cardiac transplant). LVAD patients with bioprosthetic aortic valve are more prone to leaflet fusion resulting in valvular stenosis and regurgitation.

Case Presentation: We present a 46-year-old patient who had LV systolic function recovery while on LVAD. However, he had a severely stenotic aortic valve bioprosthesis with leaflet fusion that had to be replaced before deactivating his LVAD. Due to high surgical risk, we performed valve-invalve Trans-Catheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) with an Evolut self-expanding valve, however, the patient had significant aortic regurgitation secondary to deployment above the bioprosthetic valve ring. We successfully deployed a second Evolut Self-expanding valve inside the ring with excellent results. This was followed by a successful LVAD deactivation next day. His LV systolic function continued to recover and he had no heart failure symptoms at 3 month follow up. In the right settings, TAVR in recovered LVAD patients with aortic stenosis as a bridge to LVAD deactivation is a viable option, especially for patients who fall in the high-risk group.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a valve-in-valve TAVR followed by successful LVAD deactivation in the setting of recovered LV systolic function.

Keywords: Left ventricular assist device, trans-catheter aortic valve replacement, valve in valve, heart failure, cardiac transplant, stenosis, non-ischemic cardiomyopathy.

Graphical Abstract