Contego Medical of Raleigh, North Carolina won the European CE Mark to introduce its Vanguard IEP peripheral balloon angioplasty system. The product features the firm’s Integrated Embolic Protection (IEP) technology that captures embolic debris coming off occlusions being treated within the superficial femoral artery.
The IEP looks a bit like a parachute that extends around the distal tip of the Vanguard, covering the arterial lumen, whatever its size, so that just about all the blood flows through its filtrating material. Large objects, greater than the 150-micron pores of the parachute, are captured during balloon angioplasty, preventing them from traveling downstream and creating other blockages.
Following balloon dilation, the parachute is squeezed to close against the main catheter, keeping the trapped emboli within itself and ready for safe removal out of the body.
“The Vanguard IEP System is an important step toward enhancing safety for patients undergoing peripheral angioplasty for occlusive disease,” in a statement said Professor Thomas Zeller, Director of the Department of Angiology at Universitaets-Herzzentrum Freiburg in Bad Krozingen, Germany and Principal Investigator of the upcoming Vanguard clinical study. “This device will be of particular importance to patients at high risk for distal embolization, such as those with acute limb ischemia or chronic total occlusions, as well as those at higher risk should embolization occur, such as patients with critical limb ischemia and diabetes mellitus.”
Here’s a short animation summarizing the workings of the Vanguard IEP:
Product page: Vanguard Peripheral Dilation Balloon…
Via: Contego Medical…