Brisbane, Australia-based Anteris — which has U.S. operations in Minneapolis — designed TurAVR THV as a new class of biomimetic heart valve. The company says it’s the world’s only balloon-expandable, single-piece transcatheter aortic valve shaped to mimic a native human aortic valve’s performance.
Balloon-expandable delivery enables precise alignment with the heart’s native commissures, achieving desired valve positioning.
The first ViV use of the valve came as part of Health Canada’s Special Access Program (SAP). Dr. Anita Asgar, co-director of the structural heart program at the Institut de Cardiologie de Montreal, made the SAP request. She wanted to use the Anteris valve for a patient with a failing valve and short frame height. According to Anteris, the patient had a high risk of poor hemodynamic results with a conventional ViV procedure.
How the first use of the Anteris valve played out
Asgar performed the procedure on an 84-year-old male, implanting the DurAVR THV inside the failed surgical aortic valve replacement. The procedure was successful, producing “outstanding” hemodynamic performance, according to a news release. The patient demonstrated an 88% reduction in mean gradient, returning to a near-normal physiologic state.
“The DurAVR™ THV provided a life-saving solution for a patient requiring a new valve to be implanted without compromising hemodynamic performance or future coronary access,” Asgar said. “The unique design of DurAVR™, including the low frame height and the single-piece design, makes the valve well-suited to address the needs of valve-in-valve patients.”
Anteris chief medical officer Chris Meduri said the successful procedure “further validates” the company’s ViV work.
“This signals the viability of a purpose-built valve designed to achieve life-saving outcomes in a patient population currently treated with tradeoffs in mind,” Meduri said. “Eliminating that compromise would be widely beneficial to a rapidly growing population of patients whose current valve is failing.”
