Challenge
Aortic valve repair surgery is performed by cardiac surgeons to treat leaking valves. Currently there is no possibility of verifying the success of the procedure intraoperatively. Cardiac surgeons have to re-establish the circulatory system before they can verify absence of remaining aortic insufficiency and the correct leak tightness of the sutures of the graft to the vessels. In cases where the procedure was not successful several steps of the surgical procedure have to be redone: re-clamping the aorta, induction of cardioplegic arrest and reopening of the aortic root. This is related with complications and risks for the patient.
Opportunity
Currently there is no device to check the functionality of the aortic valve during cardioplegic arrest. Such a device would reduce the number of complications for patients and would decrease the duration of the procedure and its costs, by enabling to check the success of the surgery intraoperatively.
Solution
A group of researchers and surgeons from Paracelsus Medical University have developed the Aortic Root Pressurizing Device (ARPD). The ARPD allows echocardiographic evaluation of the aortic valve by mimicking the diastolic afterload while the patient is still in cardioplegic arrest. This enables surgeons to immediately address further repair improvements if needed without having to re-establish the patient’s circulatory system. It is a disposable and easy to use device that does not require previous training. Its installation and removal takes less than 1 minute.
Status
The AGO ARPD has been tested in 15 porcine hearts. There is an active patent and the respective PCT application has been filed.
Meet the team
Dr. Christian Dinges
Co- Inventor
Roland Zegger
Venture partner at NLC
Roland joined NLC in March 2015. He is a trained pharmacist, has worked in several pharmaceutical companies, and has broad experience in marketing and sales functions as well as general management. As Venture Partner, Roland focuses on building innovative companies and strengthening NLC’s abilities to bring innovations to healthcare.