Early clinical results for the technique of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) have been encouraging and many interventional cardiology centres are keen to set up a TAVI programme. Although there are several registries outlining clinical results, randomised controlled trials have either not been performed or are currently enrolling. Such trials are important in establishing the role of the new technology but in their absence, commissioners of healthcare need guidance to ensure equal access to treatment.

The Department of Health Heart Team, in collaboration with the NHS Improvement Programme and the clinical networks in England, held a consensus meeting on December 16th 2008 in London. This was well attended. The presentations are available on the Improvement Programme Website

At this meeting a joint statement from the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland (SCTS) and the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) was released. Document

Since that time the national societies have been working with the national commissioning group and have produced guidance for commissioners. This has now been released to all regional commissioning groups in England. Guidance Document

The various stakeholders have set up a Research Development Group that will be meeting in April 2009 to determine how research and audit relating to this new technology can be organised in the UK.

Mark de Belder
President, BCIS
March 23rd 2009

Dear All,

There's been an important revision made to the TAVI dataset. You can find this in attachment TAVI Dataset 11112009 Version 3.8.xls.

To view the small change, go to the Modification History tab (fields 3.09 and 3.10).

The TAVI database design has been updated to accept 0. No/1.Yes/9.Unknown, and the records have been converted i.e 1. No to 0. No, 2. Yes to 1. Yes etc

* For those of you who intend to import data please find the revised import guide and corresponding files.

How to upload data to CCAD

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) Dataset UPDATE 28/9/2009

The transcatheter implantation of prosthetic aortic valves is expanding extremely rapidly across the UK. This is a technology in the early stages of evolution, and for which there are currently few data on medium and long term outcomes. It is a technology with enormous potential, and there seems little doubt that it will play an important part in the treatment of aortic stenosis in frail patients unsuitable for conventional surgical aortic valve replacement.

NICE guidance published in June 2008 (IPG 266) supports appropriate use of TAVI, and suggests all procedures should be recorded in a national database.

Several members of the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society and the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons have been working together to try to produce an agreed dataset for TAVI.

It is intended that all units implanting transcatheter aortic valves will complete this dataset for each procedure, and that these data will all be gathered using the mechanisms in place at Central Cardiac Audit Database (CCAD).

A web based user interface is being designed by CCAD, that will allow direct entry of these data into the CCAD servers. If units wish to use their own database software, then the option to upload a csv file via the Lotus Notes user interface will also be available.