ARTICLE SUMMARY:
To prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation Conformal Medical is offering a left atrial appendage occlusion device that conforms to the patient anatomy. Placement of the device won’t require intraprocedural transesophageal echo and general anesthesia, is not sensitive to coaxial orientation within the appendage, and does away with the need for precise sizing so hospitals won’t have to stock an array of sizes of LAAO devices as they do now.
Among the life-threatening diseases of aging, atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common; 9% of people aged 65 and older are affected by these episodes of abnormal heart rhythms (as is 2% of the population under the age of 65), which amounts to eight million patients in the US and EU.
