Implantable Fabrics Revolutionize Neurovascular Devices

By Andrew Metzger, Director, Innovation & Product Strategy, Medical Technologies, Secant Group

In the neurovascular device segment, development is focused on minute, precision devices delivered via micro-catheters. The overarching challenge is to create components that maximize performance within a minimal deliverable profile. That’s where biomedical textiles come in.

A Growing Need

More than 86,000 neuro-interventional procedures, involving a range of devices, were performed in the U.S. in 2010. Over the next four years, the number of these procedures is expected to grow at an annual rate of 18% to more than 197,000 by 2015.¹

Most neuro-interventional procedures focus on aneurysm repair. According to The Brain Aneurysm Foundation, nearly 30,000 people suffer a brain aneurysm each year and approximately 40% are fatal. Of those who survive, about 66% suffer some permanent neurological deficit.³

Aneurysms are also a major cause of stroke, which is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. that affect approximately 800,000 Americans each year.² Ischemic stroke, when an artery to the brain is blocked, is by far the most common kind accounting for 88% of all strokes.⁴

Current solutions for aneurysms, such as coiling or clipping, aren’t always effective and often have adverse side effects. Coiling, for example, involves a lengthy recovery, as well as a high risk of recurrence and perforating the aneurysm. Clipping procedures, on the other hand, are highly invasive with the possibility of serious complications and damage from opening the cranium.