St. Jude Medical Announces First Implant of Portico Transcatheter Heart Valve, Sees Clinical Trial in Europe Starting in Late 2011

St. Jude Medical, Inc. STJ, a global medical device company, today announced the first human implant of its Portico™ transcatheter aortic heart valve. The procedure was performed by Dr. John Webb, director of cardiac catheterization and interventional cardiology at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. “The first human implant of the Portico transcatheter valve is a significant milestone for our transcatheter aortic valve replacement program and was built off of our 30-year legacy in surgical heart valves,” said Frank J. Callaghan, president of the St. Jude Medical Cardiovascular Division. “The valve is designed to resolve several key limitations associated with the first generation of transcatheter valves, and it demonstrated some of these benefits as it was recaptured and repositioned during its first implant procedure.” The valve, which is made of bovine pericardial tissue, is designed to increase physicians' control and placement accuracy during valve deployment. The Portico transcatheter heart valve can be completely resheathed (the process of bringing the valve back into the delivery catheter) and retrieved before it is released from the delivery system, allowing physicians to reposition the valve at the implant site. No transcatheter valve currently on the market has the ability to be re-sheathed, repositioned, or retrieved.