This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Global launch of 3-D tricuspid ring announced
The Contour 3D Annuloplasty Ring helps restore normal valve function by remodeling natural valve’s shape and size.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In March, Medtronic announced the global release of its new tricuspid ring for the treatment of tricuspid valve disease.
The tricuspid ring (Contour 3D Annuloplasty Ring) is part of an extension of Medtronic’s remodeling contoured mitral annuloplasty ring (Profile 3D) technology. According to a press release, it was designed to avoid interference with the heart’s conduction system and to ensure that valve leaflets open and close effectively while preventing regurgitation. The release also said the tricuspid ring is the only remodeling ring that matches the shape of a healthy tricuspid valve, as assessed by CT images from normal tricuspid valves.
The development of the ring was the result of collaboration with a number of physicians, including cardiac surgeons, who were brought together to talk about some of the limitations of the current technology for treating tricuspid regurgitation, said John Liddicoat, MD, general manager of the Structural Heart business at Medtronic.
“After analyzing CT images, we shaped our tricuspid annuloplasty device to what would be a normal tricuspid valve,” Liddicoat said in an interview.
According to Liddicoat, 1.5 million people in the United States are currently affected by tricuspid regurgitation. “That’s not to say that all of them need to have heart surgery or some other intervention to decrease that, but it’s a big number and impacts a lot of people,” he said.
|
Photo courtesy of: Medtronic |
Steven F. Bolling, MD, professor of cardiac surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, was one of the first implanters of the ring and from the start found it appealing. “This ring appealed to me because of its rigid nature and that it was going to hold these large, HF-deformed hearts in the correct manner because of its 3-D shape,” he told
Cardiology Today, adding that it is part of the newer thinking on annuloplasty rings, which is “to bring it back to the correct, original anatomic 3-D shape, which should be relatively firm and hold it in that shape.”
Last year, according to Bolling, there were about 60,000 mitral valve cases in the US, and roughly 50% to 60% of them had tricuspid disease with them — yet only 10% of tricuspids were worked on.
“So these types of rings that are correct for the patient give us a better chance of having a good outcome and raise awareness for the practitioners that the tricuspid valve should be taken care of while you’re there,” he said. “There’s nothing worse than to do a beautiful operation on other parts of the heart and the patient comes back to you 6 months later with their tricuspid valve leaking like a sieve. It is most stressful on the patient, but also stressful and shaming on us. Now with these types of devices, we have better answer for [tricuspid disease], and we are more eager to address it while we are [in surgery].”
In the future, Liddicoat said he expects research to help open the door to allow devices such as the Contour 3D Ring to benefit a larger population of patients in need of repair. “As we learn more about tricuspid regurgitation and see more benefit from decreasing it, the current indications established by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology — which define when physicians should intervene on tricuspid valve disease — will continue to expand,” he said. – by Brian Ellis
Disclosure: Dr. Bolling reports having consulted for Medtronic.