Children born with a malformed pulmonary valve now have a surgical option designed to grow with them. On Oct. 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Autus Size-Adjustable Valve, the first heart valve designed to be expanded after surgery as a child grows.
The valve is still implanted during open-heart surgery. Later, doctors can thread a balloon catheter through a blood vessel and widen it from about 13 millimeters, a toddler or preschool size, to as much as 22 millimeters, about the size of an adult valve.
