Safety and Operational Efficiency of Restructuring and Redeploying a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Oxford Experience

Highlights: • Rapidly redeploying an experienced TAVR team to a non-surgical site is feasible and safe. • Restructuring and streamlining a TAVI service aligns with pandemic-mandated operational efficiency. • Minimalist TAVR can be undertaken safely in selected cases on an elective basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The risk of nosocomial COVID-19 infection for vulnerable aortic stenosis patients and intensive care resource utilization has led to cardiac surgery deferral. Untreated severe symptomatic aortic stenosis has a dismal prognosis. TAVR offers an attractive alternative to surgery as it is not reliant on intensive care resources. We set out to explore the safety and operational efficiency of restructuring a TAVR service and redeploying it to a new non-surgical site during the COVID-19 pandemic.