Death of Professor Alain Cribier, inventor of a revolutionary cardiac treatment

Professor Alain Cribier died at the age of 79, Rouen University Hospital announced on Saturday. He was internationally known for developing a revolutionary aortic valve replacement technique in 2002.

Former head of the cardiology department at Rouen University Hospital and honorary member of the National Academy of Medicine, the doctor was “at the origin of three world firsts”, such as the first aortic dilatation with a balloon catheter in 1985 and “valvuloplasty with a metal dilator” in 1992, recalled the University Hospital in a press release on Saturday.

But he is best known for “the first percutaneous implantation of an aortic valve”, a “revolutionary alternative treatment to major thoracic surgery, until now the only response to patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis”. This world first, carried out in 2002 in Rouen, was the origin of a major upheaval in the treatment of aortic stenosis, a common condition among those over 65.

Professor Cribier, who received the prestigious prize from the American College of Cardiology, then trained doctors in TAVI around the world.