The most modern Portico valve advancement system for percutaneous TAVI procedures at the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki
An important step towards the success and maximization of safety in percutaneous aortic valve replacement (TAVI) procedures is the innovative Flex Nav advancement system for the Portico valve, which was applied for the first time in Greece, exclusively by the Interbalkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki.
The new Flex Nav advancement system for the Portico (Abbott) valve was used with complete success in the first seven patients who were discharged, by the team of the 2nd Cardiology Clinic of the Interbalkan Medical Center, while the same team also performed the first operation in Athens, at the Athens Medical Center of Amaroussi.
As points out the Director of the 2nd Cardiology Clinic, Interventional Cardiologist Vlasis Ninios, the new system is the most technologically advanced achievement for the advancement of the most acclaimed Portico valve and explains why:
“The superiority of the Flex Nav system lies in the following characteristics: First, that the advancement system is hydrophilic and the thinnest, making it much easier to pass through vascular stenosis – which is often found in this group of patients – to the point of application. The profile of the advancement system is the smallest available internationally. Most importantly, however, is that the technology that incorporates this advancement system provides the interventional physician with the ability to position the valve with millimeter precision and in a completely predictable manner.”
The reason why the team of the 2nd Cardiology Clinic was chosen for the first use of the new Flex Nav system in Greece is, according to Mr. V. Ninios, “the great experience and the correspondingly large number of cases in percutaneous valve procedures. These data, moreover, are the reasons why the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki is intended to become a Center of Excellence and Training of Doctors from abroad and Greece in this particular technology”, as he emphasizes.
The team of the 2nd Cardiology Clinic of the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki consists of Interventional Cardiologists Vlassis Ninios and Elias Ninios and Specialist Cardiologists, Andreas Ioannidis and Sotiris Evangelou. The Second Cardiology Clinic has approval from the Hellenic Heart Association for the placement of transcatheter aortic valves (TAVI) and the percutaneous repair of mitral and tricuspid valves.
