Recent advances in transcatheter pulmonary valve delivery

Transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement has only been both approved and widely available for most congenital heart disease centers for a few years; its use and familiarity for interventionalists have greatly expanded our knowledge of its applicability to a multitude of clinical situations. Expanded worldwide use and longer time from implant have both served to better understand procedural limits and uncommon late adverse events.

Although currently approved for implantation in the USA only in dysfunctional and circumferential right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduits, with expanded experience operators have been able to adapt the delivery of this valve in a large number of additional clinical scenarios. Rare technical limitations of the procedure, most importantly coronary compression, are now being better defined. Although not frequent, a significant number of infective endocarditis episodes have been reported, but more recently several studies have deepened our understanding of this late adverse event for the most commonly implanted transcatheter pulmonary valve prosthesis.

Expanded and widened use has extended our understanding of who may benefit from transcatheter pulmonary valve implantation (TPVI), the current limits of TPVI, and uncommon but important late issues following TPVI.