Medical technology company Lombard Medical Technologies successfully treated the first US patients with Aorfix, its flexible stent graft for the endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs).
Meriter Hospital vascular surgeon Dr Victor Weiss, Henry Ford Hospital's Dr Sachinder Hans and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine vascular surgery division's Dr Kim Hodgson have successfully treated patients with aortic neck angles significantly greater than 60 degrees using Aorfix.
Dr. Weiss said the flexible design of Aorfix promises to make it possible to treat the most challenging patients and provides a less invasive treatment option to open surgery repair.
"Based on my initial experience with Aorfix, I believe its ease of use and unique design will provide us with an important new tool to ensure the effectiveness of endovascular treatment of AAAs," he added.
In February 2013, Lombard Medical received the FDA approval for Aorfix which included a label indication for the treatment of patients with angulations at the neck of the aneurysm from 0 to 90 degrees.
Additionally, Aorfix is the only endovascular stent graft which has secured approval to treat patients with neck angulations greater than 60 degrees.
The Aorfix was developed as an alternative for invasive open surgical AAA repair or other devices that were not licensed to treat patients with high aortic neck angles.