Twenty years ago, few interventional cardiologists could have imagined that during their professional careers it would be possible to replace a diseased aortic valve using catheter-based techniques, rather than open-chest surgery.
Alain Cribier, M.D., was not among the doubters.
Through years of innovation and laboratory testing, Dr. Cribier pioneered the development of the Cribier-Edwards heart valve, a replacement aortic valve composed of biologic tissue sewn onto a stent that can be implanted using standard catheter techniques,albeit with great care and precision. He will describe the development and evolution of percutaneous aortic valve replacement in a keynote Founders Lecture to be delivered at the 30th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), May 9-12, 2007, in Orlando, FL.
"Alain Cribier has been a driving force for catheter-based therapies for valvular heart disease since the mid-1980s. He has brought us to where we are today, with continually evolving technology for aortic valve replacement," said Ted Feldman, M.D., FSCAI, director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at Evanston Hospital, in Evanston, IL, and a professor of medicine at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. "Dr. Cribier has had a remarkable career."
Aortic stenosis most often afflicts the elderly. After years of wear and tear, the valve that serves as a portal between the left ventricle and the aorta becomes calcified, stiff, and narrowed, no longer permitting enough blood to flow from the heart to the rest of the body. Patients typically develop shortness of breath, heart failure, chest pain, and sometimes lightheadedness and fainting.
Surgery to replace the aortic valve is very effective, but it involves opening the chest and requires a lengthy recovery. At least one-third of elderly patients with aortic stenosis are too frail to withstand such major surgery.