Ando T, Onishi T, Kuno T, et al. - The accumulation of operator and institution experience as well as the wide use of newer generation devices have led to a significant improvement in clinical outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Researchers here sought to gather data on TAVI outcomes compared with surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in contemporary practice in the United States via assessing the 2018 Nationwide Readmission Database of the United States. They included a weighted 48,349 TAVI and 24,896 SAVR for aortic stenosis; an embolic protection device was used in performing 4.9% of TAVI. In propensity-matched cohort (12,708 TAVI and 12,708 SAVR), they observed lower in-hospital mortality (1.7% vs. 3.8%), acute kidney injury (11.3% vs. 22.9%), and transfusion rate (5.9% vs. 20.6%) but higher new pacemaker rate among patients managed by performing TAVI vs SAVR (10.5% vs. 7.0%). TAVI was linked with more frequent routine discharge (66.9% vs. 25.8%) and shorter length of stay (4.8 vs. 9.8 days) relative to SAVR. SAVR linked with higher hospitalization cost than TAVI (51,962 vs. 57,754 U.S. dollars). In 2018, TAVI was conducted more often than SAVR in the United States with lower in-hospital mortality of TAVI compared with both SAVR and isolated SAVR.