Fracture of the delivery catheter system during transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Figure 1. Delivery catheter system fracture during TAVI. A) Moderately calcified and tortuous iliofemoral arteries. B) & C) Moderately calcified and angulated trileaflet aortic valve. D) & E) Positioning, deployment and recapture of a 34 mm Evolut R valve. F) – H) Fractured delivery catheter system. Reproduced with permission from Medtronic.

An 87-year-old male with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis was accepted for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) via transfemoral approach (Figure 1). Multislice computed tomo-graphy demonstrated moderately calcified and tortuous iliofemoral arteries (minimal lumen diameter 10.4 mm) (Figure 1A), and a moderately calcified and angulated trileaflet aortic valve (aortic annulus perimeter 85.0 mm; ...