title: Prosthetic heart valves in pregnancy, outcomes for women and their babies: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Historically, pregnancies among women with prosthetic heart valves have been associated with an increased incidence of adverse outcomes.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Systematic review to assess risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes among women with a prosthetic heart valve(s) over the last 20 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electronic literature search of Medline, The Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and Embase to find recent studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Studies of pregnant women with heart valve prostheses including trials, cohort studies and unselected case series.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary analysis calculated absolute risks and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for pregnancy outcomes using a random effects model. The Freeman-Tukey transformation was utilised in secondary analysis due to the large number of individual study outcomes with zero events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven studies capturing 499 pregnancies among women with heart valve prostheses, including 256 mechanical and 59 bioprosthetic, were eligible for inclusion. Pooled estimate of maternal mortality was 1.2/100 pregnancies (95% CI 0.5-2.2), for mechanical valves subgroup 1.8/100 (95% CI 0.5-3.7) and bioprosthetic subgroup 0.7/100 (95% CI 0.1-4.5), overall pregnancy loss 20.8/100 pregnancies (95% CI 9.5-35.1), perinatal mortality 5.0/100 births (95%CI 1.8-9.8) and thromboembolism 9.3/100 pregnancies (95% CI 4.0-16.5).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women with heart valve prostheses experienced higher rates of adverse outcomes than expected in a general obstetric population; however, lower than previously reported. Women with bioprostheses had significantly fewer thromboembolic events compared to women with mechanical valves. Women should be counselled pre-pregnancy about risk of maternal death and pregnancy loss. Vigilant surveillance by a multidisciplinary team throughout the perinatal period remains warranted for these women and their infants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Metaanalysis suggests improvement in #pregnancy outcomes among women with #heartvalveprostheses.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Population Perinatal Health Research, Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.|Department of Cardiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lawley
authors.affiliation: Clinical Population Perinatal Health Research, Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lain
authors.affiliation: Clinical Population Perinatal Health Research, Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Algert
authors.affiliation: Clinical Population Perinatal Health Research, Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Figtree
authors.affiliation: Clinical Population Perinatal Health Research, Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D001705:Bioprosthesis; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death; D046689:Fetal Mortality; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D054238:Perinatal Mortality; D011247:Pregnancy; D011249:Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Cardiovascular diseases; heart valve prosthesis; perinatal mortality; pregnancy