Edwards heart valve system good as surgery at 3 years-trial

By Bill Berkrot SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Patients who received the original version of Edwards Lifesciences Corp’s non-invasive heart valve replacement system had a nearly identical death rate after three years as those who had open-heart surgery, with no increased risk of stroke, according to results from a clinical trial. The data, presented on Monday at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific meeting in San Francisco, should provide doctors some reassurance about the durability of the Edwards transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), known as Sapien. …