Use of Railway Dilator as a Novel Technique to Cross Prosthetic Aortic and Mitral Paravalvular Leak.

Percutaneous endovascular repair of prosthetic paravalvular leaks (PVLs) has emerged as a safer, and less invasive option preferred for many patients. Crossing the PVL with a guide catheter (GC), or guide sheath is one of the challenging aspects of this technique and at times require arteriovenous (AV) rail creation. AV rail creation requires additional arterial access, snaring, and externalizing of a wire, all of which are associated with unique challenges and complications risk. Despite using these techniques, nearly 8% of the PVL closure procedures are unsuccessful. We report two cases with a novel technique of using a 0.035″ dilator from the Railway™, a radial sheathless access system, to successfully cross a guide catheter (GC) through difficult PVL when the traditional telescoping technique failed.