A transcatheter intervention is any procedure carried out through a catheter (a thin, flexible tube) inserted into the body via a small puncture in a blood vessel, rather than through open surgery. The catheter is guided to the target site under imaging guidance, and the therapeutic action (such as balloon inflation, stent deployment, valve repair, or ablation) is performed at the tip of the catheter.
The term transcatheter intervention broadly encompasses the same procedures as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and catheter ablation, and is used more specifically when referring to structural heart interventions: procedures to repair or replace valves, close holes in the heart, or treat other structural abnormalities without open heart surgery.
Examples include transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI or TAVR), in which a new aortic valve is delivered via a catheter through the femoral artery and deployed inside the diseased native valve; the MitraClip procedure to repair a leaking mitral valve; and transcatheter closure of atrial or ventricular septal defects.
These approaches have expanded access to treatment for patients who are too high-risk for conventional open heart surgery, including elderly patients with multiple comorbidities. All transcatheter procedures carry procedural risks including vascular complications, embolism, and arrhythmia; these are discussed with the patient as part of the informed consent process. Procedures are performed in specialist cardiac catheterisation laboratories or hybrid operating theatres.
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