First Explantation of Direct Flow Medical Transcatheter Valve

Next-generation transcatheter heart valves are designed to overcome procedure-related adverse events such as vascular complications and annulus rupture, and to minimize paravalvular regurgitation. The Direct Flow Medical valve is fully repositionable and shows promising results. The case is presented of Direct Flow Medical valve implantation in a patient with a functional bicuspid aortic valve. Multiple repositioning maneuvers failed to overcome the anatomic difficulties, and this resulted in a moderately high persisting gradient and moderate paravalvular leakage. Surgical valve explantation was necessary which, to the present authors' knowledge, is the first such case of Direct Flow Medical valve explantation to be performed.