Elderly patients getting Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW)’s Sapien heart valve implanted through the ribs as part of an expanded access program reaped more benefit than those observed in the initial trials, a study found. After the original research, 822 more patients received the device that replaces a leaky aortic valve. Thirty days later, 8.2 percent of those patients died, compared with 8.7 percent in the initial trial. A year later, 23.6 percent of patients in the expanded program died, fewer than those who participated in the first study or who underwent standard open-heart surgery, Irvine, California-based Edwards said today in a statement.
