Thousands of older people in the United States alone, who need new heart valves but are too frail to survive the surgery might soon get a chance at an easier option - a way to thread in an artificial aortic valve without cracking their chests. The aortic valve is the heart's main doorway, and a major new US study found that snaking a new one in through an artery significantly improved the chances that patients with no other treatment options would survive at least a year. Not yet known is whether easier-to-implant valves might work for the less sick who'd like to try the new technology rather than undergo the open-heart surgery required for standard valve replacements that can last 20 years. That question still is being studied, but two competing types of these “transcatheter aortic valves” already are sold in Europe - and manufacturer Edwards Lifesciences Corp. hopes to win US Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its version for inoperable patients in about a year. The valves are not a cure-all, they come with a risk of stroke, and no one knows how long they'll last. Still, specialists say they are a step to transforming care for a problem on the rise as the population grays. Some 300,000 Americans alone already have a seriously diseased aortic valve, a gate that essentially rusts with age until it can't open properly, forcing the heart to work ever harder to squeeze blood through. More than 50,000 people a year undergo open-heart surgery to replace that valve, and thousands more are turned away, deemed too old or ill to survive the arduous operation. Traditionally, surgeons saw a person's breastbone in half, stop the heart, cut out the old, hardened valve and sew in a new one. Even the best patients spend a week in the hospital and require a few months to recuperate, but people can live well with these valves for decades. Transcatheter valves, made by Edwards and competitor Medtronic, are threaded through a leg artery up to the heart - and don't require removing the old valve. Instead, it's propped open and the new valve is wedged into that doorway. Standard heart valve replacement costs upward of $50,000, most from surgical and hospitalization fees. Transcatheter valves are anticipated to cost $20,000 to $30,000 but to bring lower hospital bills. – APchest A model of minimally invasive heart valve by Edwards Lifesciences is seen in Washington, Tuesday.
