FDA Approves Artificial Heart Valve For Kids That Grows As They Do

The Autus Size-Adjustable Valve eliminates the need for multiple surgeries.

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved the first heart valve that can be expanded post-surgery so it keep growing with children. Designed by a company called Edwards, the Autus Size-Adjustable Valve is an artificial pulmonary valve designed to be implanted into pediatric patients.

According to a studypublished in the National Library of Medicine, around 400,000 children a year born in the US suffer from some form of congenital heart disease. Approximately 30 percent of those cases affect the valves, which are tissue flaps serving as one-way doors to keep blood flowing in the right direction out into the body. Two main abnormalities of the pulmonary valve, or the valve on the right side of the heart, are stenosis and atresia. Stenosis is when the valve is narrowed, while atresia is what you call the...

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