First Swedish Patients Receive MitraClip(...( MENLO PARK Calif. A...),Health

MENLO PARK, Calif., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Evalve, Inc., the leader in the development of devices for the percutaneous repair of cardiac valves, today announced treatment of the first group of patients with the MitraClip(R) system at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden. The MitraClip(R) system is the only medical device commercially available in the European Union which provides a non-surgical mitral valve repair option for patients suffering from the effects of functional and degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR).

MR is the most common type of heart valve insufficiency in Europe and the United States, affecting millions of people worldwide. Significant MR affects more than eight million people in the U.S. and Europe, the majority of which have FMR. There are more than 600,000 new diagnoses of significant MR each year in Europe and the U.S.; however, only 20 percent of these patients undergo surgery each year. Many higher risk surgical patients and non-surgical patients continue to be affected by the chronic volume overload caused by MR, which requires the heart to work harder, and may ultimately lead to heart failure.

The first patients in Sweden were successfully treated by a team led by cardio-thoracic surgeon Anders Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D., assisted by interventional cardiologist Magnus Settergren, M.D., Ph.D. Echocardiography was performed by cardiac anesthetist Jan Hultman, M.D., Ph.D. and clinical cardiologist Reidar Winter, M.D., Ph.D.

"The MitraClip(R) technology has added a new dimension to the treatment of mitral regurgitation. In my initial experience with our first three patients, I was very pleased to see the good result achieved with a single clip in each of our patients. Any less invasive approach for heart valve procedures is worthwhile to consider, especially if the long term results are compatible with the techniques requirin
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