New Stent Reduces the Threat of Stroke

Designed specifically to present gentle action on fragile brain vessels, the Wingspan brain stent is highly flexible and can be maneuvered to reach areas of the brain that could not be surgically treated.

Although the device has received FDA Humanitarian Device Exemption approval, it is presently only in use in the U.S. in specially selected hospitals, one of which is Rush University Medial Center in Chicago. According to statistics, about 60,000 Americans annually suffer strokes due to build-up of plaque in brain arteries - intercranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD).

"For those patients who are not responding to medical therapy, the Wingspan stent is a welcomed new option," says Dr. Demetrius Lopes, a neuroendovascular specialist at Rush and member of the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch medical group. "Preliminary tests in Europe are very encouraging and show that the stent is better than medication alone."

As Rush explains, using a catheterization procedure, the Wingspan system is guided through the femoral artery in the leg up to the blockage in the brain. A balloon catheter is used to break open the plaque and then is withdrawn. The stent is a wire-mesh tube made of super elastic metal. It is inserted and maneuvered into the plaque. When the protective sheath is removed, the stent is deployed to prop open the artery. Self-expanding, the stent can curve or taper to fit the specific brain blood vessel.

Wingspan is intended for patients who have failed medical therapy and have a brain blood vessel blockage greater than or equal to 50% of the vessel.