The Efficacy and Safety of Patiromer for Heart Failure Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PurposeTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of patiromer, a novel potassium binder, in reducing the risk of hyperkalemia in patients with heart failure and optimizing their RAASi therapy.DesignSystematic review and meta-analyses.MethodThe authors conducted a systematic search in Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library for randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy and safety of patiromer in heart failure patients from inception to 31 January 2023 and updated on 25 March 2023. The primary outcome was the association between the reduction of hyperkalemia and patiromer compared with placebo, and the secondary outcome was the association between optimization of RAASi therapy and patiromer.ResultsA total of four randomized controlled trials (n = 1163) were included in the study. Patiromer was able to reduce the risk of hyperkalemia in heart failure patients by 44% (RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.87; I-2 = 61.9%), improve tolerance to target doses of MRA in patients with heart failure (RR 1.15, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.30; I-2 = 49.4%), and decrease the proportion of all-cause discontinuation of RAASi (RR 0.49, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.98; I-2 = 48.4%). However, patiromer therapy was associated with an increased risk of hypokalemia (RR 1.51, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.12; I-2 = 0%), while no other statistically significant adverse events were observed.ConclusionPatiromer appears to have a considerable effect on reducing the incidence of hyperkalemia in heart failure patients and on optimizing the therapy of RAASi in those patients.