ReValve Solutions announced today that doctors successfully treated the first patient with its next-generation replacement heart valve.
Cardiologists at the Punta Pacifica Hospital, Panama City, Panama, performed the procedure. An 81-year-old male with a history of heart failure received the Palmetto transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR). The patient also had a series of failed surgical bypass grafts and severe mitral regurgitation (MR) prior to the procedure.
ReValve completed the first implant of a previous iteration of the system back in 2021.
Dr. Charles Davidson of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Dr. Temistocles Diaz of Punta Pacifica led the latest procedure. Dr. Douglas Boyd and Dr. Edris Aman assisted as well. They successfully completed the procedure in under an hour, reducing the patient’s MR to trace. At 30 days, the patient continues to present zero MR along with preserved ventricular function.
Davidson says the straightforward procedure proved “very encouraging.” He said the system’s leaflet securement along with the low-profile valve frame helps avoid obstruction that previously limited TMVR technologies.
“The ReValve system is a promising technology,” Diaz said in a news release. “The immediate patient recovery is quite remarkable with preservation of the left ventricular function. The next morning the patient stated he was ready to sing again, we could not have had a better outcome.”
ReValve designed its technology to replace the mitral valve while preserving natural basal left ventricular function. Founder and CEO Julie Logan Sands says the company’s approach works with the heart’s natural movement, rather than requiring the heart to work around a stiff implant.
“Our flexibility and four-point securement system provide a patent LVOT and maintains left ventricular function throughout recovery,” Sands said. “ReValve’s first-of-its-kind TMVR is thoughtfully designed to expand the treatable population of patients suffering from mitral valve disease.”