An Experimental and Computational Study on the Effect of Caval Valved Stent Oversizing

Transcatheter tricuspid valves are implanted onto the cavoatrial junction in order to avoid the challenging task of anchoring the valve onto the complex tricuspid valve annulus. ...little is known about optimum extent of oversizing of the valved stent in a vena cava. In this study, we implanted valves of the same diameter onto the larger sized inferior vena cava (IVC) and a smaller sized superior vena cava (SVC). ... that half of the valve protrudes out of the vena cava. This is to comply with the anatomical constraint of not occluding the hepatic vein. The pulsatile flow loop was driven by a wave-generating piston pump (SuperPump AR series, ViVitro Labs Inc., Victoria, BC, Canada). ...