First Human Implantation of Venus Medtech's Retrievable TAVR Device Performed in China

November 28, 2017—Venus Medtech (Hangzhou) Inc. announced that the first human implantation of the company's VenusA Plus retrievable valve system was successfully performed at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (SAHZU) in Hangzhou, China. Earlier this year, the company launched the VenusA-Valve, China's first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system.

In the company's announcement, Prof. Wang Jian'an, MD, President of SAHZU, advised that the procedure marks the first successful human implantation of a retrievable transcatheter aortic valve in China. The female patient, who was 76 years of age, was diagnosed with severe aortic valve stenosis and was considered high risk for surgery. The heart team discussed and defined the patient's anatomical features as a bicuspid aortic valve and asymmetric calcification, which raised the risk of dislocation during the valve implantation.

Prof. Wang commented, "SAHZU's medical team has been closely working with Zhejiang Province's Cardiac Valve Research Institute and Venus Medtech's Research & Development team to study, develop, and produce the heart valve products. The collaboration began with the VenusA-Valve and has led to the success for VenusA Plus. The product is a next-generation TAVR valve that delivers good performance in terms of release, retrievable stability, controllability, and passing ability, thus offering great potential when it comes to clinical applications."

According to Venus Medtech, the retrievable system allows the valve to be withdrawn and repositioned after release, avoiding adverse events resulting from poor implant position and mismatch of the implanted valve, including valve translocation, severe paravalvular leakage, a negative impact on the bicuspid aortic valve, and high degree atrioventricular block caused by conduction bundle compression. The system also reduces the complexity of the procedure, which, in turn, helps to promote the adoption and application of TAVR technology.