A new procedure that delivers and places or repairs a heart valve through a catheter could soon become an alternative to open heart surgery for extremely high-risk patients.
Percutaneous Transcatheter Implantation of the Aortic Valve, developed by French cardiologist Dr. Alain Cribier (University of Rouen Hospital) is far less invasive OHS, and has been demonstrated with success on several patients in France and Germany,
The FDA is presently undertaking feasibility trials of using the Cribier technique by trying it on 50 patients in Germany and the U.S.