Laser angioplasty successful after failed attempt at plain balloon angioplasty
The Spectranetics Corporation recently announced that excimer laser coronary angioplasty was successfully used to restore normal blood flow to the left anterior descending artery in a patient with severe diffuse coronary artery disease in very small caliber vessels, which made bypass surgery a less attractive alternative. After initial attempts at balloon dilation failed, Douglas Ebersole, MD, of the Watson Clinic in the Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Lakeland, Florida, used the Spectranetics' POINT 9 concentric catheter to open a pilot hole in the occluded artery, which was then successfully ballooned and stented.
Dr. Ebersole commented: "I've been a user of Spectranetics excimer laser products for some time, but this was an unusually exciting case for me. The patient, a 54-year-old woman with a history of diabetes and severe diffuse coronary artery disease, presented with severe chest pain and recent non Q-wave myocardial infarction. Because her small vessels made bypass surgery quite difficult, we decided to try to open up both the right coronary artery and the left anterior descending artery via a minimally invasive, percutaneous approach. Balloon angioplasty worked in the right coronary artery, but failed on several attempts with progressively smaller balloons in the left anterior descending artery. I then tried the POINT 9 laser catheter, and it easily crossed multiple lesions in the artery. The patient left my care with normal flow in the vessel at the site of the treatment."
Joseph Largey, president and chief executive officer of Spectranetics, commented: "The POINT 9 catheter, our smallest and most maneuverable model, is becoming the tool of choice for difficult cases such as the balloon failure Dr. Ebersole described. It can also be used to open total occlusions passable by a wire and to treat lesions in vessels as small as 1.5 mm in diameter. As in this case, we're seeing more and more examples of excimer laser energy focused through the POINT 9 catheter opening up occluded vessels that formerly had to be endured or treated with bypass surgery."
Spectranetics is a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets products that deliver excimer laser energy for minimally invasive surgical procedures within the cardiovascular system. The company's CVX-300(R) excimer laser is the only system approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for multiple cardiovascular procedures, including coronary angioplasty and the removal of problematic pacemaker and defibrillator leads. The company is currently conducting three investigational trials designed to obtain FDA approval to market products in the United States for additional applications. The LACI study (Laser Angioplasty for Critical Ischemia) tests laser angioplasty to improve circulation in the lower leg. The PELA trial (Peripheral Excimer Laser Angioplasty) deals with blockages in arteries in the upper leg. LARS (Laser Angioplasty for Restenosed Stents) tests use of excimer laser energy to clear blocked coronary stents (thin steel mesh tubes used to support the walls of coronary arteries). All of the company's FDA-approved and investigational applications have received Communaute Europeene (CE) mark registration for marketing within Europe.
Source: The Spectranetics Corporation
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