In Global News: Smallest Heart Valve for Infants, a Modified TAVR Valve for TMVR, and Thoracic Outlet Surgery Fashion [1]
Patient Care
Carter Capps, a pitcher for professional baseball team the San Diego Padres, has made himself a necklace out of the rib surgeons removed [3] during his thoracic outlet surgery.
A Connecticut, USA, man gets some experimental and synergistic help from a bacteriophage and antibiotic [4] to treat a persistent infection in his aortic graft.
Drugs and Devices
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the world’s smallest mechanical heart valve [5] for pediatric patients, a 15 mm Masters Series Heart Valve from Abbott.
Durvalumab from AstraZeneca has been approved by the US FDA for patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer [6]; this follows the publication of a randomized trial showing superiority of durvalumab [7] over placebo following chemotherapy.
Research, Trials, and Funding
Researchers from Vancouver, Canada, presented their early experience with the Sapien M3 [8], a transcatheter mitral valve replacement device that caught the attention of attendees [9] at the recent Cardiovascular Research Technologies meeting.
The use of lung cancer treatment modalities varies by geographic region [10] across the UK, according to research published in Thorax, and the researchers say this could be negatively affecting patient survival in regions with lower treatment rates [11].
In Indiana, USA, the first patient has been enrolled in the EVAS2 IDE Confirmatory Clinical Study [12] of the Nellix EndoVascular Aneurysm Sealing System from Endologix.