Turkish medical firm develops valvulotome catheter for heart valve disease

By Muhammet Emin Horuz

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish medical firm Invamed announced Thursday that it had developed a valvulotome catheter for the treatment of heart valve disease.

Developed in Invamed’s research and development laboratories and produced on the production campus, the NOD valvulotome catheter is "a device that interrupts venous valves during vascular procedures such as in situ peripheral bypasses, non-reversed translocation bypass, and arterio-venous fistula creation," the company said in a statement.

The NOD valvulotome catheter provides easy cutting of the venous valves with the endovascular method.

However, during this process, thanks to its special design, it provides faster healing by reducing wound necrosis without damaging the endothelium.

"With its innovative shape, it provides automatic self-sizing and centering to the target area while providing user-friendliness for surgeons and high safety and comfort for patients," it said.

Venous valves are small valves found in venous blood vessels in the body and are designed to prevent blood from flowing backwards through veins. The heart muscles, which create pressure for the blood to flow towards the heart, move the blood upwards in the veins, and venous valves also prevent blood from flowing downwards due to gravity, it added.

A bypass operation using grafts taken from venous veins is a basic approach to providing blood flow to a complete or occluded artery. Leg veins cannot be used as a direct graft for occluded leg veins as they contain a number of valves. By removing these valves, arterial blood—especially one's own great saphenous vein (GSV)—can restore blood flow function to the occluded artery by bypass.

The process of cutting these valves is called valvulotomy. The valvulotomy procedure uses long flexible catheters with a recessed cutting blade at the tip to destroy the venous valves.