Instead of open heart surgery, which requires expensive machines and specialist hospitals and surgeons, the valve can be inserted at a rural hospital by a general surgeon through a small incision.
"A self-homing hollow balloon carries the valve into the heart," said Peter Zilla, head of the Christiaan Barnard cardiothoracic surgery department at the University of Cape Town, who led the team that developed the valve and the insertion technique.
"The heart continues to beat during the implantation of the valve without interrupting the blood flow to the brain and the other organs."
The announcement of the breakthrough, which offers the hope of cheap life-saving surgery to 33 million people worldwide with rheumatic heart disease, was made just before the 50th anniversary on December 3 of the world's first heart transplant - performed in Cape Town by Professor Christiaan Barnard.
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