MINNEAPOLIS, April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ATS Medical, Inc. , a leader in the manufacturing and marketing of cardiac surgery products and services, is pleased to announce their participation in the upcoming 85th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) being held in San Francisco, California on April 10-13, 2005.
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ATS will celebrate two significant corporate milestones at their exhibition booth: the 100,000th implant of the ATS Open Pivot(R) Heart Valve, first implanted in 1992, and the global partnership with CryoCath Technologies, Inc. Effective this year, ATS Medical was granted rights to market CryoCath's surgical cryotherapy products for the ablation of cardiac arrhythmias. The booth will feature live wet lab demonstrations of the CryoCath SurgiFrost(R) cryoablation system facilitated by Dr. Robert Hebeler from Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas and Dr. Reiner Uhl from the Heart Center in Bad Krozingen, Germany. The ATS Open Pivot Heart Valve will also be featured.
Michael D. Dale, ATS Medical President, CEO and Chairman of the Board, commented, "The AATS Meeting is a great opportunity for ATS Medical to celebrate our exciting 100,000th milestone with surgeons from around the world. The mission of ATS is to serve cardiac surgeons by meeting their specific needs. This is clearly evident in the products and partnerships we have brought to the marketplace, which improve patient outcomes through unique technology."
ATS Medical manufactures and markets products and services focused on cardiac surgery. It is headquartered in Minneapolis and is global in scope with sales in more than 45 countries. The ATS Open Pivot heart valve has been implanted in over 100,000 patients and utilizes a unique pivot design resulting in exceptional clinical performance and a low risk profile. The ATS Medical web site is http://www.atsmedical.com/.
CryoCath Technologies, headquartered in Montreal, is a medical technology company and acknowledged international leader in cryotherapy, catheter and probe-based products for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. It is recognized for developing the ability to deliver cold therapy safely and effectively in a minimally invasive manner. The CryoCath Technologies web site is http://www.cryocath.com/ .
More information about the AATS Annual Meeting can be found at http://www.aats.org/ .
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding ATS Medical's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.
Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040202/ATSILOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.comATS Medical, Inc.CONTACT: Michael Dale, President-CEO, or Jack Judd, Chief FinancialOfficer both of ATS Medical, Inc., both at +1-763-553-7736; or, Doug Sherk,or, Jennifer Beugelmans both of EVC Group, Inc., both at +1-415-896-6820