This new technique could make TAVR more available

The BASILICA procedure involves (A) a catheter directing an electrified guidewire through the base of the left aortic cusp into a snare in the left ventricular outflow tract; (B) after snare retrieval, the mid-shaft of the guidewire is electrified to lacerate the leaflet (C); (D) the leaflet splays after TAVR permitting coronary flow. [Image courtesy of NIH]

A novel technique could prevent coronary artery obstruction — a rare but often fatal complication related to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), according to the National Institutes of Health researchers who created it.

The researchers at NIH’s National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute are calling the procedure Bioprosthetic Aortic Scallop Intentional Laceration to prevent Iatrogenic Coronary Artery obstruction (BASILICA). They think the technique could TAVR available to even more high-risk patients who need heart valve procedures.

A leading TAVR company, Edwards Lifesciences, previously projected a $5 billion market by 2021 for the procedure. The advance at NIH could potentially accelerate TAVR’s expansion even more. About 5 million people in the United States each year receive a heart valve disease diagnosis; more than 20,000 of them die, according to American Heart Association statistics related by NIH.

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