Repair Therapy for Mitral Heart Valve

New repair therapy is designed to treat the leaky mitral valve of patients suffering from congestive heart failure.

The GeoForm annuloplasty ring, developed by Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Irvine, CA, USA), features a unique, three-dimensional shape shown to successfully treat mitral valve regurgitation, a backflow of blood caused by a leaking valve, the result of cardiomyopathy.

In a presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) in Barcelona (Spain) in September 2005, Steven F. Bolling, M.D., presented results from a prospective study of 16 congestive heart failure patients, all of whom were suffering from mitral valve regurgitation due to the distortion of their heart's left ventricle.

Six months after their valves were surgically repaired with the GeoForm annuloplasty ring, their mitral valve regurgitation was eliminated and the left ventricle was reformed. Dr. Bolling is professor of surgery at the University of Michigan Health System (Ann Arbor, USA). He helped develop the GeoForm ring, along with Prof. Ottavio M. Alfieri, M.D., of St. Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy).

"While still early, these results clearly demonstrated excellent outcomes for patients suffering from severe mitral valve regurgitation and left ventricular dysfunction,” said Dr. Bolling. "We believe this heart valve ring will help break the cycle of mitral valve regurgitation and left ventricular distortion that can be caused by certain forms of congestive heart failure.”

Patients suffering from severe mitral valve regurgitation are five times more likely to die of a heart problem and six times more likely to have heart failure or some other serious cardiac problem than a healthy person.




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