The catheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) procedure treats people with severe and symptomatic aortic snoosis whose surgical risk is considered high or extreme

- With the approvals of Portico™ and the new FlexNavdelivery system™, Abbott offers the Brazilian market a more complete portfolio of structural heart diseases

Abbott announces that the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) recently approved its Portico valve™ and its FlexNav™ system for transcatheter aortic valve (TAVI) implantation in the treatment of people with severe and symptomatic aortic stenosis who are at high or extreme risk for open breast surgery. With this latest advance in TAVI (also known as TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve replacement), Abbott expands its portfolio of structural cardiac solutions in the country that include innovative and minimally invasive therapies to repair or replace weakened or damaged heart valves, as well as obstruct ing openings in the heart.

Aortic snoosis is one of the most common and life-threatening heart valve diseases in the world. It happens when the opening of the aortic valve becomes narrow and restricts blood flow from the left ventricle from the heart to the aorta.¹ Patients with the disease may experience shortness of breath, pressure or chest tightening, fainting, palpitations, fatigue and heart murmurs. This condition can lead to heart failure.² Prior to TAVI, the standard for treating severe aortic sterosis was aortic valve replacement, but not all patients were fit for this type of invasive open-chest surgery.

"As a therapy, TAVI has become quite popular and has helped in many patients around the world to live better. The m is dicos, in turn, continued to seek improvements in v a lvulas that optimize the results for their patients", explains Eduardo Pessoa de Melo,interventional cardiologist and full member of the Brazilian Society of Hemodynamics and Interventional Cardiology (SBHCI). "With Abbott's new FlexNav delivery system, you can offer a delivery system that improves the implant process even in extremely complex cardiac anatomies."

With years of global experience, Portico is a self-expanding TAVI valve with intra-annular leaflets (inside the native valve) that help provide optimal blood flow (hemodynamics) when placed inside the patient's natural valve. The replacement valve structure also preserves access to critical coronary arteries for future coronary interventions. The Portico device is deployed using the FlexNav delivery system, which features a slim design to accommodate different patient anatomies and small vessels offering more flexibility, ease of tracking and precision valve placement.

"In the field of TAVI, when we observe the evolution of technology, delivery systems often do not receive the same attention as the valves themselves, but improvements in this system can result in substantial benefits for patients. With these releases, physicians using Portico can benefit from improvements in delivery, flexibility and navigation during the implant, even in more complex cardiac anatomies," explains Andre Fontes, Country Manager of Abbott's Division of Structural Heart Diseases in Brazil. "The arrival of the Portico valve and the FlexNav system in Brazil represents another milestone in our work to improve people's access to a robust set of solutions to treat structural heart disease, and we continue with our mission to improve people's health and quality of life so that they can return to living their lives more fully."