Incidence, Trends, and Predictors of Palliative Care Consultation After Aortic Valve Replacement in the United States

Aim: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) have become a reasonably safe procedure with acceptable morbidity and mortality rate. However, little is known regarding the incidence, trends, and predictors of palliative care (PC) consult in aortic valve replacement (AVR) patients. The main purpose of this analysis was to assess the incidence, trends, and predictors of PC consultation in AVR recipients using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. Materials and Methods: We queried the NIS database from 2005 to September 2015 to identify those who underwent TAVR or SAVR and had PC referral during the index hospitalization. Adjusted odds ratio (aOR) was calculated to identify patient demographic, social and hospital characteristics, and procedural characteristics associated with PC consult using multivariable regression analysis. We also reported the trends of PC referral in AVR recipients. Results: A total of 522 765 admissions (mean age: 75.3 +/- 7.8 years, 40.3% female) who had TAVR (1.7% transapical and 9.2% endovascular approach) and SAVR (89.2%) were identified. Inpatient mortality was 3.96%, and 0.5% patients of the total admissions had PC consultation. The PC referral for SAVR increased from 0.90 to 7.2 per 1000 SAVR from 2005 to 2015 (P = .011), while it remained stable ranging from 9.30 to 13.3 PC consults per 1000 TAVR (P = .86). Age 80 to 89 (aOR: 1.93), age >= 90 years (aOR: 2.57), female sex (aOR: 1.36), electrolyte derangement (aOR: 1.90), weight loss (aOR: 1.88), and do not resuscitate status (aOR: 44.4) were associated with PC consult. West region (aOR: 1.46) and Medicaid (aOR: 3.05) were independently associated with PC consult. Endovascular (aOR: 1.88) and transapical TAVR (aOR: 2.80) had higher PC referral rates compared with SAVR. Conclusions: There was an increase in trends for utilization of PC service in SAVR admissions while it remained unchanged in TAVR cohort, but the overall PC referral rate was low in AVR recipients during the index hospitalization.