First implants of absorbable metal stents
Germany - Following positive results in numerous animal studies and the first human implantations of the Biontronik Absorbable Metal Stent (AMS) in below-the-knee arteries that confirmed device safety, at the end of July the first patients (worldwide) received AMS implants.
Professor Raimund Erbel, Director of the Cardiology Clinic, Essen University, and Professor Michael Haude, carried out the procedures as part of a ‘Progress-AMS’ study.
‘This technology combines - for the first time - the short term vessel support of a metal stent with the advantage of removing the long term presence of an implant,’ explained Dr Claus Martini, Vascular Intervention CEO at Biotronik GmbH & Co KG, Essen.
The four-month follow up will determine the great potential of this technology, the firm added. ‘We also believe that AMS has the potential to overcome the future hurdle of non-invasive imaging, because it doesn’t create artifacts under X-ray and allows successful utilisation of non-invasive vessel imaging with computed tomography CT or multi-slice CT (MSCT). In addition AMS stents are magnetic resonance compatible, because no artifacts are produced.’
This article was published on 09/01/2004