Global healthcare company Abbott has launched its latest-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) system, Navitor, making the minimally invasive device available for people in India with severe aortic stenosis who are at high or extreme surgical risk.

With the Navitor valve, the company is advancing TAVI (also referred to as TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve replacement) therapies with innovations including a unique design to prevent blood leaking around the valve.

The Navitor TAVI system is the latest addition to the company's comprehensive structural heart transcatheter portfolio that offers physicians and patients less invasive options to treat heart diseases. 

Aortic stenosis is one of the most common and life-threatening heart valve diseases. It restricts blood flow through the aortic heart valve to the rest of the body, which can lead to heart failure and, in certain cases, sudden cardiac death. 

Prior to TAVI, the standard of care for severe aortic stenosis was surgical aortic valve replacement, but not all patients were candidates for open-heart surgery. 

Navitor features a unique fabric cuff (NaviSeal) that works with the cardiac cycle to reduce or eliminate a backflow of blood around the valve frame known as paravalvular leak (PVL), a common complication following TAVI procedures. The new device is the only self-expanding TAVI system with intra-annular (within the native valve) leaflets and large frame cells – features designed to help improve access to critical coronary arteries to facilitate future interventions to treat coronary artery disease (CAD). The new design additionally provides improved hemodynamics, or better blood flow.