Professor Alain Cribier died on Friday at the age of 79, announced the Rouen University Hospital. The doctor was "at the origin of three world firsts", such as the first aortic dilation with a balloon catheter in 1985 and "valvuloplasty with a metal dilator" in 1992.
He is best known for "the first implantation of a percutaneous aortsic valve", a "revolutionary alternative treatment to major thoracic surgery"