Direct visualisation of the BASILICA technique post TAVR to enhance coronary flow

EuroIntervention Journal

Many patients identified at risk of coronary obstruction remain too high a risk for open heart surgery and their treatment is limited to palliative care. In May 2017, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Washington developed an electrosurgery catheter-based technique, to slice the leaflets of a failing valve or prosthesis intentionally, so as to increase coronary flow through the displaced leaflets. Bioprosthetic or native Aortic Scallop Intentional Laceration to prevent Iatrogenic Coronary Artery obstruction (BASILICA) has demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness in investigational trials.

For over two decades, the Visible Heart^® Laboratories have utilised a large mammalian ex vivo beating heart preparation to design, test, and develop novel cardiac devices and therapeutic techniques4. Uniquely, we visualised the BASILICA procedure performed by D. Dvir on an implanted 29 mm Evolut™ R (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, USA) during TAVR in a reanimated swine heart.

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