Endovascular coil device for embolization of blood vessels
Overview
Endovascular embolization is a minimally invasive procedure in which a blood vessel is closed to prevent its bleeding and rupture. In practice, X-ray imaging is used to navigate a catheter to the region of interest at which an embolization material (i.e. coils, particles or glue) is injected to effectively close off blood flow to the abnormal vessel. This technique is utilized in a variety of treatment therapies such as aneurysms, spinal cord vascular malformation, uterine fibroids and certain types of tumors. In these cases, endovascular embolization prevents internal bleeding from rupture of thin-walled aneurysms and/or restricts oxygen and nutrient delivery to cancerous and noncancerous tumors. The disclosed technology presents a novel endovascular coil device, which features a radio-lucent coil combined with a temporary radio-dense outer layer to allow for acute detection of the embolization material for proper deployment during the minimally invasive surgery without prolonged side-effects on future diagnostic medical imaging.
Market Opportunity
It is estimated that ~40,000 endovascular embolization procedures are performed in the United States annually for a variety of applications surrounding vascular damage, disease and malformation. A common embolization material utilized in these procedures is stainless steel coils as this material can be visualized through X-ray imaging, deployed quickly, is highly compact, accommodates tortuous vessels, and acts as a scaffold for clot formation which is necessary to occlude the abnormal blood vessel. After this material is deployed, however, it becomes a permanent implant within the patient’s body. The presence of this permanent metallic implant can create significant artifact when diagnostic medical imaging is performed, such as CT or MRI. In this way, it is extremely challenging to monitor the success of the endovascular embolization surgery as well as interpret future medical imaging tests which may be performed on the patient throughout their lifetime.
Innovation and Meaningful Advantages
The disclosed novel endovascular coil device overcomes the limitations of current metal-based embolization material in creating imaging artifact by engineering radio-lucent coils that have a temporary radio-dense outer coating. The temporary radio-dense outer coating of the embolization material allows for surgeons to still utilize X-ray imaging during the procedure in order to guide the catheter and embolization material to the correct location within the patient’s body. However, once the temporary coating dissolves and the coil remains in place with the blood vessel, the material no longer generates artifacts on diagnostic imaging. In this way, the device will improve interpretation of medical imaging on patients throughout their lifetime and enhances overall patient care following endovascular embolization surgery.
Collaboration Opportunity
We are interested in exploring research collaborations and licensing opportunities
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