Abbott has launched its clip delivery system, a minimally invasive heart valve repair device to treat mitral regurgitation in India. This product puts new technology into the hands of physicians by giving them a life-saving treatment option that may be used for people suffering from mitral regurgitation due to a heart defect or as a result of heart failure.

This clip device repairs leaky mitral valves without open-heart surgery and is delivered to the heart through a vein in the leg. The device clips portions of the leaflets, or flaps, of the mitral valve together to reduce the backflow of blood (known as mitral regurgitation, or MR), restoring the heart's ability to pump oxygenated blood more efficiently.

To date, this product has helped treat more than 100,000 people worldwide suffering from MR and is supported by the industry’s most extensive body of clinical evidence, including the results of the landmark COAPT Trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine in September 2018.

In addition, the device’s safety and efficacy is also supported by 3 randomized clinical trials, over 30,000 people enrolled in clinical studies and 1000+ publications.

With more than 16 years of clinical experience, Abbott’s mitral clip system is the first and only transcatheter mitral valve therapy with proven safety and survival, and durability of clinical outcomes.

Dr. Sai Satish, internationally renowned Senior Interventional Cardiologist from Apollo Hospitals, India, and practicing interventional cardiologist and Director Structural Heart (International) Gottsegen Institute of Cardiology, Budapest, Hungary, said "Not all patients with a leaky mitral valve are suitable for open-heart surgery due to advanced age or other co-morbidities. Till now there was little we could do for them. This procedure is a non-surgical treatment option for these patients which has been proven to dramatically reduce symptoms and improve not just their quality of life, but also survival.”

Dr. Ravinder Singh Rao, MD, DM, FACC, Director, TAVI and Structural Heart Disease Program, Consultant Interventional Structural Cardiologist, Eternal Hospital, Jaipur said, “Mitral regurgitation with poor left ventricular function carries a poor prognosis. Medicines alone cannot cure this mechanical problem, and only help the heart tolerate it better. Open heart surgeries have risks for some patients.”

According to a study by The Lancet, cardiovascular diseases caused 28 percent of deaths in 2016, which was double the numbers reported in 1990 when it caused 15 percent of deaths in the country – from 1.3 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2016 in India.