New heart valve can expand as children grow

The synthetic pulmonary valve can initially be implanted at a diameter of 13 millimetres, a size suitable for smaller children, and later expanded using a balloon catheter to up to 22 millimetres. This is comparable to the size of a pulmonary valve in an adult.

The benefit is that this could reduce the need for repeated open-heart surgeries in children with congenital defects of the pulmonary valve.