Comparison of Outcomes of Alcohol Septal Ablation or Septal Myectomy for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Patients ≤65 Years Versus >65 Years

Alcohol septal ablation (ASA) and septal myectomy (SM) are therapeutic interventions for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC) who remain symptomatic despite medical treatment. Outcomes for both interventions in age groups ≤65 versus >65 years are scarce. We queried the National Readmission Database for adult patients undergoing either SM or ASA between 2010 and 2015 for HC. Patients were divided into 2 age-groups (≤65-years and >65-years). We aimed to compare the in-hospital mortality, complication rates, and resource utilization for each procedure between the 2 age-groups. We identified 4,358 patients with HC who underwent intervention, of which 2,113 were treated with SM and 2,245 with ASA. In-hospital mortality was 6-times higher in patients ≤65 years old who underwent SM compared with ASA (1.5% vs 0.3% odds ratio 6.2; p = 0.04); and 4-times higher in patients >65 years treated with SM compared with ASA (6.7% vs 1.7% odds ratio 4.29; p = 0.04). Blood transfusion rates and stroke were higher in patients undergoing SM, regardless of their age-group. Length of hospital stay was lower in the ASA group (3 days vs 6 days for both age groups, p <0.001) as well as median hospital costs (≤65 years old: $15,474 vs $31.531; and >65 years old: $16,672 vs $36,042, p <0.001). In conclusion, patients with HC treated with ASA had significantly lower in-hospital mortality, complications rates, length of hospital stay, and hospital costs compared with patients undergoing SM at any age.