Cardiologists make history, perform first UNICORN procedure during valve-in-valve TAVR

A team of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in Hong Kong has performed the first successful undermining iatrogenic coronary obstruction with radiofrequency needle procedure—or UNICORN for short—on a high-risk valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) patient. The group wrote about their experience in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal launched and distributed by the American Heart Association.
Detailed images from the UNICORN procedure. All images courtesy of Kwong-Yue Eric Chan, MBBS, et al. and Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.

BASILICA was considered for the 67-year-old female patient, but UNICORN was seen as an overall better option. The full case study was published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.