The impact of gender on in-hospital mortality and morbidity after isolated aortic valve replacement

The objective of our retrospective investigation was to examine the influence of gender on in-hospital mortality and morbidity after isolated aortic valve replacement (AVR). Between January 1993 and June 2002, 2212 patients (782 females, 1430 males) underwent AVR. Propensity matching was used to adjust for numerous differences in baseline characteristics and perioperative variables between groups. Unadjusted in-hospital mortality was higher in females (27 [3.5%] females versus 23 [1.6%] males; P = 0.005). An analysis using 1:1 matching by propensity score did not find a significant difference in in-hospital mortality [OR (95% confidence intervals), 1.0 [0.4, 2.6]; P = 0.99) or overall morbidity (1.4 [0.7, 2.5]; P = 0.29) between groups. Further analyses, including classification of women and men into quintile groups by propensity scores and logistic regression models with propensity score adjustment, found that females were at increased risk for cardiac morbidity [OR (95% CI), 3.4 [1.1, 10.8]; P = 0.038), but not mortality (0.9 [0.3, 2.5]; P = 0.88) nor other morbidities. These results suggest that there is no greater than a 2.5-fold increase in risk for females compared with males undergoing AVR. Female gender, however, may impart increased risk for cardiac morbidity after AVR.