Northwestern Memorial Hospital Surgeon First in Illinois to Repair Aortic Valve with Novel Ring

CHICAGO, March 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A Northwestern Memorial Hospital cardiac surgeon helped pioneer the use of an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aortic valve ring as part of a triple valve repair, the first of its kind in the United States.

S. Chris Malaisrie, MD, has performed two successful surgeries using the new ring, a device that potentially avails aortic valve repair options to a wider group of patients.

"Repairing a valve is always better than replacing a valve, and until now we have never had an aortic annuloplasty device for repair," said Dr. Malaisrie, who is also an associate professor of surgery – cardiac surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "There's a bright future for aortic valve repair, and this device provides another opportunity for us to do so with better and longer-lasting repairs."

The HAART 300 is the first aortic annuloplasty device to receive approval from the FDA. Annuloplasty is a procedure to rebuild the frame of a heart valve, called an annulus. Designed to treat aortic regurgitation, the new valve stabilizes while reshaping the aortic annulus, allowing the valve leaflets to properly close, stopping the regurgitation.

The device is easily sized and implanted, making valve repair instead of replacement an option for a broader group of patients.

"At Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, our priority is the safest, most effective and most advanced treatments for heart disease," said Patrick McCarthy, MD, chief of cardiac surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and executive director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. "We are pleased to offer this option and look forward to continuing to being a leader in treating valvular heart disease."

The Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is part of the Northwestern Medicine health system, with multiple sites of care in Chicago and the region. Northwestern Memorial Hospital currently is ranked first in the United States for heart failure survival. Northwestern Memorial Hospital's heart and heart surgery program is ranked seventh nationally and first in Chicago, Illinois and the surrounding states by U.S. News & World Report.

For more information, or to make an appointment with a cardiovascular specialist, call (312) NM-HEART or visit heart.nm.org.

To learn more about Northwestern Medicine, visit http://news.nm.org/about-northwestern-medicine.html.

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SOURCE Northwestern Medicine