In the News: Heart transplant, device approvals, and studying cannabis for COPD [1]
Patient Care
A cardiac surgeon in Mumbai, India, is raising money [3] to fund bypass surgeries, angioplasties, and angiographies for people who cannot afford them.
A boy in Hong Kong receives heart transplant [4] after 282 days on a mechanical pump.
TAVI is now an option for patients in Saskatchewan, Canada [5], and the first transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement in West Virginia, USA [6], is performed at WVU.
Doctors in Al Ain, UAE, call for more facilities to offer cardiac surgery [7].
Drugs and Devices
The US FDA used data from the STS/ACC Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry to expand the approved use of a Edwards Lifesciences’ Sapien 3 TAVR [8] to valve-in-valve procedures. The US FDA also cleared FlowGlide Technology [9], the latest generation of technology for chest drainage after CT surgery from company ClearFlow, Inc.
MedReleaf Corp. in Canada is now the first ICH-GMP certified medical cannabis producer [10].
Stryker Corporation is expanding into surgical imaging technologies [11] with its purchase of Novadaq Technologies.
Research Trials and Funding
Tilray will support a Phase II trial on the efficacy of vaporized cannabis in COPD [12] at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.