- It is vital as a specialty that we collect data on all devices and implants after redo aneurysm surgery, including cases of infection.
- We have now added the capability to add details on LeMaitre cryopreserved grafts to the NVR.
- It is also possible to record details of bovine patch constructed grafts and silver impregnated dacron grafts.
- We hope that the NVR team might be able to give valuable information on the use of these grafts in the future.
- We have also updated the name of Cryolife (Jotec) on the NVR to be Artivion. You’ll now be able to select Artivion in the dropdown list of manufacturers.
- If you find you cannot enter a certain device on the NVR, then please contact us as it might be a new product or size we are not aware of. We can then liaise with the manufacturer to add it.
The guide for recording aortic devices and re-intervention procedures on the NVR has been updated to reflect these changes.
A simple USB barcode scanner (can be bought from Amazon for £20-25) remains the simplest and quickest way to record most devices on the NVR. Please contact us if you wish to find out more information about this.
Future NVR Quarterly Report Metrics
We are planning on adding two new data quality metrics to future NVR outputs for each eligible trust/health board in the UK:
- The percentage of aortic procedures on the NVR that contain a device.
- The percentage of all NVR procedures where the patient has been asked for their consent (or assumed consent) and the record contains their NHS/CHI/H&C number.
These are both important pieces of information to collect as it helps with the important task of monitoring of implantable medical devices. Without the patient identifiers, we are unable to link NVR records at an individual patient level to external administrative datasets such as HES, PEDW or the ONS death register.