Xi'an, China – From May 5 to May 6, MicroPort Endovascular (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ("MicroPort® Endovascular") attended the Sixth Northwest Vascular Forum & the 12th Chang'an Vascular Forum held in Xi'an and held a satellite meeting of "the Application of Unibody Stent Design in Endovascular Repair." Hosted by the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, the meeting invited several renowned vascular surgery specialists from China and abroad to share all-around the latest advancement and the development trend of the vascular surgery field in China.
During the satellite meeting of "the Application of Unibody Stent Design in Endovascular Repair," many specialists were invited for academic sharing. Professor Qingsheng Lu of Changhai Hospital of the Second Military Medical University delivered a speech of "the Distribution of Primary Tear in Aortic Arch and its Clinical Treatment Strategies" to share the treatment strategy of aortic arch and the design rationale of Castor™ Branched Aortic Stent-Graft System ("Castor™"). Professor Lu said, the hybrid surgery changes the morphology of the aortic arch and leads to large trauma. Its mid-term outcome is satisfactory but its long-term result remains uncertain and needs to be followed-up. In-situ fenestrated technique may result in brain ischemia and type III endoleak, and meanwhile due to the randomness of fenestration, its mid-term result is unknown. The chimney technique could lead to "gutter" endoleak due to the gutter between the branch stent graft and the main body. He pointed out, the unibody stent Castor™, jointly developed by MicroPort® Endovascular and Changhai Hospital of the Second Military Medical University, is the first stent system that reconstructs the descending aorta, aortic arch and great vessels of the arch all at once. The device features unique unibody structure – the branch and the main body is unified to avoid endoleak and long-term migration. In addition, it adopts standard design that takes a full consideration of the shape of the arch and the structure of the branch vessel. Also, the design of dual access introducing branch stent graft guarantees precise positioning of the main body and the branch, and the soft inner sheath makes the delivery faster and more precise.
Professor Hongyan Tian of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Professor Li Zhang of the Qinghai Cardiovascular Hospital, Professor Zhipeng Hu of the Cardia-cerebrovascular Disease Hospital of the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Professor Quan Chen of the Gansu Provincial Hospital, and Professor Zhang Zhang of Tangdu Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University also delivered speeches respectively regarding the clinical indications of the unibody bifurcated stent graft, the clinical experience of unibody bifurcated stent graft, as well as the clinical application of unibody bifurcated stent graft in EVAR and the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm. Their speeches fully explained the advantages of the unibody bifurcated stent graft in clinical application from different perspectives. They also had active interactions with the attendees about the key points of using the unibody stent.
As the world's first stent system that reconstructs the descending aorta, aortic arch and great vessels of the arch all at once, Castor™ represents the high-end unibody bifurcated stent graft. It was granted to enter the special Green-Path by China Food and Drug Administration ("CFDA"), which is rapid-track of review and approval procedure for innovative medical devices, and is expected to be launched in China within this year. MicroPort® Endovascular President Zhenghua Miao said: "Castor™ provides a creative solution that makes the delivery and positioning of unibody branched stent much easier and features low occurrence of endoleak and good patency in branch vessel. Once launched, we believe it will provide ingenious, accurate and safe clinical experience for physicians and benefit more patients with aortic diseases as well."