ATS Medical Announces First Use of the New ATS CryoMaze ...( MINNEAPOLIS July 20 /- AT...),Health

MINNEAPOLIS, July 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ATS Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATSI), manufacturer and marketer of state-of-the-art cardiac surgery products and services, today announced the first commercial use of the new ATS CryoMaze(TM) 10-S Surgical Cryoablation Probe for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. The cryoablation procedure was performed by Niv Ad, MD, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the Inova Heart & Vascular Institute in Falls Church, Virginia, a premier heart center in the United States.

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The ATS CryoMaze 10-S Probe complements the current product offering by adding a linear cryoablation probe that is more rigid than the current ATS CryoMaze Probes. The increased support throughout the length of the 10-S probe addresses the preference of some surgeons to have more probe leverage to achieve contact with targeted tissue that is difficult to reach. In addition, the increased stiffness of the ATS CryoMaze 10-S Probe will optimize the shape retention of the malleable probe which is particularly useful in minimally invasive procedures.

The new cryoablation probe leverages the second generation, argon-based ATS CryoMaze System that quickly achieves the coldest probe temperatures available for cardiac arrhythmia surgery. The argon-based cryoablation system routinely reaches probe temperatures of -160 degrees C compared to first generation nitrous-oxide systems that only reach temperatures of -65 degrees C. The colder probe temperatures provide faster, deeper lesions yielding greater confidence that transmural, linear lesions are being achieved, especially in clinical situations in which varying tissue thickness is the rule.