SAHZU President and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. WANG Jian'an was invited to Kocaeli University School of Medicine to proctor transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures using China's self-developed devices, on July 22.

Professor Teoman Kilic, president of the Turkish Working Group of Interventional Cardiology and a well-known interventional cardiologist, operated together with Prof. Wang's team. Kocaeli University School of Medicine is a top medical institution and ranks first in Turkey in terms of the volume of heart valve interventions.

Despite the high tortuosity of femoral artery (where the catheter was inserted and the artificial valve sent in through) and the extreme severity of aortic valve stenosis of the 91-year-old patient, the innovative "China valve" was successfully implanted under Prof. Wang's guidance, and the patient's condition was immediately relieved.

For over ten years, the SAHZU heart valve team led by Prof. Wang has been deeply involved in building a R&D and clinical application system of Chinese-developed heart valve devices, ranging from aortic valve and mitral valve, to tricuspid valve, based on their belief of "solving unresolved problems and overcoming unovercome difficulties".

The team has achieved several breakthroughs. They successfully developed China's first retrievable and navigable transcatheter artificial aortic valve. They pioneered the "Hangzhou Solution", a comprehensive solution of TAVR that specially accommodates Chinese heart valvular disease patients who tend to have heavy aortic valve calcification and high proportion of bicuspid valve deformity. The team also took the lead in applying transfemoral marginal repair surgery in tricuspid valve diseases.

The team is committed to sharing China's innovative technology and China solutions with the global medical community, and has been invited to 18 top medical centers in 12 countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, Argentina, and Russia to carry out on-site guidance.