Sheathless transcatheter aortic valve implantation via the direct aortic approach

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has become an accepted alternate treatment modality to surgical aortic valve replacement in high surgical risk patients. There remains, however, a subset of patients in whom safe delivery of a TAVR device cannot be achieved by the femoral or subclavian routes. In such cases the direct aortic or transapical routes can be used though this still requires suitable anatomy. We present the first reported case of a direct aortic TAVR using a sheathless technique in order to provide sufficient distance to safely deliver the prosthesis.