19th April 2011 – Straub Medical AG receives class-III CE-mark-approval for Rotarex®S and Aspirex®S endovascular catheter families
• Approval for entire catheter portfolio upgraded from CE-class-II to CE-class-III
• Abdominal vessels now included in indication for use
• Venous use of Aspirex®S catheters approved
Wangs (Switzerland), 19th April 2011 – Straub Medical AG announced today that it has received an upgraded CE-mark-approval for its Rotarex®S and Aspirex®S families of rotational endovascular catheters. Straub Medical’s rotational catheters restore blood flow in occluded blood vessels.
The technically optimized S-series, representing the latest generation of Rotarex® and Aspirex® catheters, have been introduced to the market in mid 2010 with a class-II CE-mark-approval, which allowed for the treatment of occlusions of peripheral arteries. The recent regulatory upgrade to a CE-class-III-product comes along with a notably enhanced indication: the catheters, in combination with the Straub® Medical Drive System, are now intended and marketed for the percutaneous transluminal removal of material from occlusions of blood vessels outside the cardiopulmonary, coronary and cerebral circulations. Both Rotarex®S and Aspirex®S catheters are indicated for native blood vessels or vessels fitted with stents, stent grafts or native or artificial bypasses. While Aspirex®S catheters are intended to be used for the removal of fresh thrombotic or thromboembolic material, Rotarex®S catheters are intended for removal of thrombotic, thromboembolic and atherothrombotic material from fresh, subacute and chronic occlusions.
“The successful upgrade to a CE-class-III-product and the approval of the enhanced indication underline the safety and effectiveness of our devices”, stated Walter Mayerl, PhD, Director Regulatory Affairs at Straub Medical. “We are glad that our devices can now be used to help an even wider range of patients suffering from vascular occlusive disease”, said Immanuel Straub, Founder, Chairman and President of Straub Medical AG.
The Straub® Medical occlusion treatment procedure outlined
Reopening an occluded vessel with a Rotarex®S or Aspirex®S catheter is performed in the following way: after the quick and simple set-up of the plug&treat Straub® Medical Drive System, the physician selects the suitable Rotarex®S or Aspirex®S catheter in the appropriate length and dimension. The catheter is inserted into the blood vessel in a standard, minimally invasive interventional technique and advanced inside the vessel over a guide-wire until it reaches the location of the occlusion. Now the physician activates the catheter and advances it through the lesion in the prescribed way. The working head of the catheter safely detaches the occlusion material without harming the vessel wall. The rotating helix inside of the catheters concomitantly aspirates and fragments the detached material and transports it through the inner lumen of the catheter into a collecting bag outside of the patient’s body. The catheters allow for reopening of up to 1cm of occluded vessel per second, depending on the consistency of the occlusion material. Blood flow is immediately restored. After successful treatment of the lesion, the rotation is stopped and the catheter is withdrawn from the blood vessel.
“An important advantage of our technology is that it allows for rapid vessel reopening and immediate restoration of blood flow without the potential risks of bleeding when administering thrombolytics, or of inducing barotraumata or embolisations when dilating the lesion with a balloon, or of vessel trauma and neointima hyperplasia when implanting a stent”, illustrated Dirk Dreyer, Director Global Sales & Marketing at Straub Medical. “And even if the occlusion occurs in a previously stented region of the blood vessel or in a bypass, our catheters can be used to safely reopen these segments again.”
Venous use outlined
The enhanced indication includes the approval of venous use of the Aspirex®S catheter family. “The enhanced approval together with the venous indication for Aspirex®S greatly accelerate Straub Medical’s evolution as a leading provider of devices for the treatment of vascular occlusive disease,” explained Gido M. Karges, Managing Director of Straub Medical AG. “Being established as one of the market leaders in the treatment of peripheral arterial occlusive disease, we now aim to widen the portfolio of both products and indications. One of our goals is to improve the physician’s ability to treat venous disease, e.g. DVT, with our new generation of catheters and a dedicated range of complementary devices designed specifically for venous use. With enhanced indications and products for arterial and venous use we hope to expand interventional treatment to patients who previously would not have had that treatment option.”
Straub Medical AG outlined
Wangs (Switzerland) based Straub Medical AG develops and manufactures medical devices for the treatment of vascular disease and markets its products in more than 40 countries worldwide. Founded in 1997, Straub Medical AG operates as a family-held private corporation.
Media contact:
Christian Vetter
Product Management & Marketing International
+41 81 720 04 62
christian.vetter@straubmedical.com
