WP1 - Minimally invasive heart surgery and percutaneous valve therapies

Workpackage Leader: Gianfranco B. Fiore, POLIMI

Minimally invasive and percutaneous procedures have emerged as the most promising approaches to valve treatment. Valve repair/replacement is performed in no-open chest conditions by means of specific operating tools, or even using repair devices or collapsible valves introduced by means of a catheter. As compared to standard open chest surgeries, these procedures are less traumatic and associated with less pain, discomfort, and post-operative analgesics, implying shorter hospitalization and lower costs. Traditional distinctions between prosthetic vs. reparative treatments, as well as the barriers between the role of the surgeon vs. that of the interventional cardiologist, are practically vanishing and new technology makers must keep the pace with that. Many issues still remain unsolved, e.g. deliver/manoeuvre precision, device repositioning, interaction with surrounding tissues and structures. WP1 of MUSICA is designed to tackle these problems by developing new technologies such as in vitro set-ups that include the real anatomy of the site of interest and allow for training of clinicians and testing of new devices, and “virtual” computational tools that can faithfully account for the effects of percutaneous access and quantify the biomechanical impact of the devices.

WP1 is comprised of the following five tasks/projects:

T1.1 Innovative platforms for realistic clinician training in the lab

T1.2 Simulation of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI)

T1.3 Devices and tools for minimally invasive cardiac surgery interventions

T1.4 Patient-specific assessment of hemodynamic performance of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI)

T1.5 Simulation of transcatheter mitral valve repair and replacement

MUSICA Research WP1 - Minimally invasive heart surgery and percutaneous valve therapies