Edwards Lifesciences Reports Strong Fourth Qua...( not a substitute for norsuperior to the...),Health

The items described below are excluded from the GAAP financial results in the reconciliations that follow:

Cost of Goods Sold -- The Company incurred a $2.0 million charge in the fourth quarter of 2006 for the inventory written off as a result of the discontinuance of the Optiwave Laser Ablation System. Given the magnitude and unusual nature of this expense relative to the operating results for the period presented, this expense has been excluded in non-GAAP net income.

Special Charges (Gains), net -- The Company incurred certain special charges and gains in 2007 and 2006 related to the following:

1) Realignment expenses: $13.9 million charge for a worldwide realignment

of resources, primarily related to severance expenses for the sale of

the LifeStent product line and the termination of the Company's

intra-aortic balloon pump distribution agreement in Japan in the fourth

quarter 2007; $7.3 million charge for severance expenses resulting from

a resource realignment in the fourth quarter of 2006, and a

$2.1 million charge primarily for severance expenses in the first

quarter of 2006 resulting from the planned closing of a manufacturing

facility;

2) Pension settlement and adjustment: $7.1 million charge related to the

termination of the Puerto Rico pension plan and a $4.1 million

adjustment to apply SFAS 87 accounting to a Switzerland pension plan in

the fourth quarter of 2007;

3) Reversal of gain on estimated insurance settlement: $2.5 million

charge in the fourth quarter of 2007 to reverse the $ 2.5 million gain

recorded in the third quarter of 2007 from the estimated insurance

settlement from a fire that destroyed certain inventory held at a third

party warehouse in Brazil; this ga
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