Researchers at the Polytechnique Montréal Nanorobotics Laboratory in Canada have developed a new method to guide endovascular instruments into complex vascular structures that were hitherto inaccessible to endovascular surgeons. The technique involves moving the patient and the endovascular instrument using a robotic platform within a magnetic field. Endovascular surgery has enabled minimally invasive approaches for […]
Tag: Cardiac Surgery
Protective Membrane for Pacemakers to Make Replacement Surgeries Easier
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a cellulose membrane to cover and protect implantable devices, such as pacemakers. The material can reduce fibrotic build up and make subsequent surgical removal of implants much easier. So far, the pouch-like device has been tested successfully in pigs, and the researchers hope to apply for clinical trials in […]
Omega FluoroShield FDA Cleared to Reduce Radiation Exposure
Omega Medical Imaging, a firm based in Sanford, Florida, has won FDA clearance for its FluoroShield technology, as well as the 2020 Cardiac Flat Panel Detector. FluoroShield automatically aims the radiation beam across the area of interest during interventional procedures utilizing fluoro or cine (short X-ray movies of the beating heart) imaging. This is thanks […]
Bioinspired Double-Sided Surgical Tape Rapidly Seals Tissues Together
Researchers at MIT have developed an adhesive tape that can quickly seal wounds and bind tissues together, potentially even binding implantable medical devices to a target site. The researchers hope that the tape could eventually replace surgical sutures, which have a variety of limitations. “There are over 230 million major surgeries all around the world […]
3D Printed Cells and Bioinks for Making Implantable Blood Vessels
Researchers based in South Korea and Hong Kong have developed a method to create biomimetic blood vessels by directly 3D printing vascular cells and bioinks containing collagen and vascular tissue extracellular matrix components. The resulting constructs closely mimic natural blood vessels, suggesting that such techniques could pave the way for custom vascular grafts to treat […]
New Medical 3D Printer Unveiled by B9Creations
B9Creations, a company out of Rapid City, South Dakota, is releasing its B9 Core Med 500 medical printer, a device based on the popular B9 Core Series line of devices. The company is already well established in the dentistry field with its high precision 3D printers, but it’s now also forming a new healthcare division […]
Tiny Medical Imaging Sensor Sets Guinness World Record
OmniVision Technologies, a Santa Clara, California firm, just announced that it has won the Guinness World Record for “The Smallest Commercially Available Image Sensor”. The OV6948 sensor was designed for use in catheters and endoscopes, allowing these devices to be as small as possible while also providing high quality imaging from within the body. Measuring […]
Medtronic Launches Evolut Pro+ TAVR System: Interview with Dr. Pieter Kappetein
Last month, Medtronic announced receipt of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for and launch of the Evolut Pro+ TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) System to treat patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. Aortic stenosis is characterized by stiff, often thickened aortic valve leaflets that struggle to open and close, requiring the heart to […]
FDA Clears geko Muscle Pump Activator to Prevent VTE
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) too often strikes bedridden patients in the hospital, and this is one of the main reasons that patients are put back on their feet as soon as possible. Inflatable wraps placed around the legs, which can raise the pressure, are a common way to prevent the condition. Now, a device called geko […]
Low Power MRI Helps Image Lungs, Brings Costs Down
Modern clinical MRIs usually have magnetic field strengths of 1.5 or 3.0 Tesla. These are pretty powerful magnets and it’s the reason that these devices are very expensive. While such strengths have been standard for a long time, the internal hardware and software beyond the magnets have been improving steadily. Now, researchers affiliated with the […]
Gore CARDIOFORM ASD Cleared in Europe for Atrial Septal Defects
Gore won the European CE Mark for its GORE CARDIOFORM ASD Occluder, a device designed for percutaneous, transcatheter closure of ostium secundum atrial defects (ASDs). The occluder recently completed a clinical study involving 125 patients with ASD, ranging from 2 to 84 years of age, all of whom were successfully implanted with the GORE CARDIOFORM […]
Laser Activated Gold Nanorods Create Silk Seal for Incisions and Wounds
Staples and sutures are currently used to seal soft tissues together in clinical practice, but researchers at Arizona State University have come up with an alternative technique that resembles welding. It may end up being used to seal tissues during surgeries and to treat wounds, and in many cases simply to enhance the effectiveness of […]
Apps for Healthcare Monitoring: Interview with Artem Petrov, CEO of Reinvently
Reinvently, a mobile app development company based in Palo Alto, California, has created a number of healthcare apps, including those which collect, collate, and display data from wearable medical devices. The combination of a wearable device and a mobile app allows clinicians to monitor their patients in real-time and identify issues before they become a […]
Hydrogel Mimics of Heart Tissue to Study Cardiac Reshaping Following Aortic Valve Implantation
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures have become a popular way of treating aortic valve stenosis, a condition in which the valve stiffens and worsens cardiac function. Following implantation of a prosthetic valve, the hearts of patients tend to undergo significant reconstruction around the treatment site, but the mechanics of this process are poorly understood. […]
Early Bird, an Internal Bleeding Detector, Now Available In U.S.
Saranas, a Houston, Texas firm, is releasing its novel Early Bird bleeding monitoring system in the United States, following FDA de novo approval of the device. Intended for use during minimally invasive vascular procedures, the Early Bird helps to identify dangerous events such as ruptured or dissected vessels. Such incidents can result from using large […]
Material to Repair Cardiac Tissue Damaged by Heart Attacks Passes First Clinical Trial
Ventrix, a spin-off company of the University of California San Diego, has developed a special hydrogel that can be injected into the heart to provide a platform for cardiac repair following a heart attack. The technology was just tested in humans for the first time as part of an FDA-approved Phase 1 clinical trial. Though […]
FDA Clears Siemens Artis icono Angiography Systems
Siemens Healthineers won FDA clearance for the ARTIS icono angiography systems that are designed for use in a variety of procedure types. The ARTIS icono 2D/3D biplane system is intended for neuroradiology and abdominal imaging while the ARTIS icono floor has a single fluoroscope and is designed for vascular, interventional cardiology, surgical, and oncology procedures. […]
Injectable Hydrogel for Transcatheter Intravascular Embolization: Interview with Dr. Rahmi Oklu, Founder of Obsidio
Obsidio Inc., a medical device company based in Columbia, South Carolina, has developed an embolic hydrogel (called a gel embolic material: GEM) designed to be delivered minimally invasively through a clinical catheter for blood vessel occlusion. Applications include controlling blood flow in vascular injuries and aneurysms, reducing tumor blood supply, and preventing abnormal blood flow […]
Tivus Ultrasound System for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Gets FDA Breakthrough Designation
SoniVie, a company based in Israel, won FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its TIVUS intravascular ultrasound system for patients suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Currently there are only medications available for PAH and even those don’t do so well at improving mortality rates, so the new designation is potentially a quick path to approval […]
Nanovolcanoes Record Electrical Activity Inside Heart Cells
The electrical activity of cardiomyocytes and other excitable cells such as neurons is studied using a number of techniques. To get details about the action potentials within the interior of the cell requires either forcefully pushing microelectrodes through the cellular barrier or using electroporation, a high voltage technique that makes temporary openings in the membranes. […]