Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on transcatheter aortic valve implantation in Spain

Abstract

To the Editor, The current COVID-19 pandemic has changed our health system dramatically. The need to have resources available to assist the high volume of patients affected, the healthcare overload, and the need to limit exposure to the virus have led to the implementation of extraordinary measures like delaying the healthcare provided to patients with chronic conditions and the almost total suspension of elective procedures such as the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The Interventional Cardiology Association of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (ACI-SEC) sent a survey to the hospitals included in the Spanish TAVI registry with the following objectives: quantify the temporal damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to TAVI procedures in our country, analyze the disease progression of patients not treated because of the pandemic, study the rate and consequences of the infection in patients treated during this period of time, and ultimately assess the number of COVID-19 infections within the medical staff of the cath labs. Forty out of the 46 centers included in the national registry participated in the study (86.9%). The parameters of thid survey are shown on figure 1.