Edit: We are live! Please continue to submit your questions. Hi Reddit, Our team of cardiologists at Henry Ford Hospital specializes in working with the sickest of the sick, offering pioneering options to patients with hard-to-treat advanced heart disease. One of our focuses has been on finding new, novel ways to access the heart. The Henry Ford team was the first to successfully perform transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) using a novel way to access the heart, called a transcaval access route. This is done through moving a catheter through a vein up into the body, then bridging in the patient’s abdomen into the aorta. I have had the pleasure of teaching this procedure to colleagues around the world, and the procedure has now been done in more than 125 patients at 18 centers throughout the world (16 in the U.S.). The Center for Structural Heart Disease cardiologists developed this procedure working closely with doctors at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. We’re now sharing this technique with others in an effort to save lives. The transcaval procedure is particularly effective in patients whose arteries are too small for traditional transcatheter routes to the heart, where scarring from previous procedures makes access difficult, or where multiple procedures require elaborate access. It has been very gratifying to say to our advanced heart disease patients and their families, “We have another option,” when they’ve been told no option exists. EDIT: Thank you for tuning in! I’d be happy to speak with your doctor if you think this procedure might be a benefit to you or a loved one. For more information on our heart program: www.henryford.com/heart. Proof: https://twitter.com/HenryFordNews/status/657236352333946880?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet Read more about transcaval heart procedure, here: http://www.henryford.com/body.cfm?id=46335&action=detail&ref=1943 https://www.henryford.com/body.cfm?id=60737 http://www.henryford.com/body.cfm?id=46335&action=detail&ref=2068 I also helped perform the first successful transcaval heart procedure in Europe. http://www.henryford.com/body.cfm?id=46335&action=detail&ref=2166