Claret Medical has announced that several of the largest centres of excellence for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) have now performed the first US cases of protected TAVI with the newly FDA-cleared Sentinel cerebral protection system.
Among the first centres to use the Sentinel to protect patients from the risk of TAVI-related procedural stroke were Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles), Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland), NewYork-Presbyterian, and Mount Sinai Heart (New York). Other major centres, such as Emory Healthcare in Atlanta and Gates Vascular Institute in Buffalo, New York, plan to perform cases soon.
Sentinel is the first and only device available in the USA that is designed to capture and remove debris dislodged during TAVI before it can travel to the brain. A press release reports that the use of the Sentinel has been shown to reduce procedural related strokes by 63% in the first 72 hours after TAVI when most strokes occur.
“All patients are concerned about the risk of stroke. In our conversations about treatment options, patients and their families seem reassured about having an added layer of protection during their TAVR procedure,” says Samir Kapadia (Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute, Cleveland Clinic, USA).
