Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a localized dilatation of the abdominal aorta, and may rupture if left untreated. AAA is the 15th leading cause of death in the United States, and every year over 200,000 patients are diagnosed with this condition, necessitating over 19,500 endovascular repairs (EVAR) and 5,000 open surgeries. Depending on the complexity of the patients’ AAA geometry, alternative EVAR approaches must be used, which require fenestrations (fEVAR) to be made. However, there is only one FDA approved fEVAR stent graft that can take up to 8 weeks to arrive in a clinical setting; this has significant increased costs (up to 3 times more than the traditional EVAR) and is still difficult to position correctly inside the patient. To improve patient healthcare, a universal solution is needed to address these shortcomings.
Description
The Endovascular Orifice Detection Device (EOrD) has the ability to detect visceral arteries (renal and superior mesenteric artery) using electromagnetic (EM) waves and their reflection/transmission properties. Once an orifice is detected, our device punctures a hole through the stent graft material to feed a guidewire in. This initiates the process for the placement of the bridging stents, and thus achieves in situ fabrication of the stent graft. Our technology reduces procedural costs, aids clinicians in placing bridging stents, and allows for additional use cases that include ascending thoracic aneurysm/traumatic aortic injury cases. Perhaps most importantly, it enables patients to access immediate repair solutions without waiting up to 8 weeks. Adoption of our solution has the potential to replace open surgery, a procedure that is invasive, costly, dangerous, and has long recovery times for patients.
Applications
· AAA fenestrated endovascular repair
· Repair of thoracic aneurysm, abdominal aneurysm, and traumatic aortic injury events.
· Emergent repair of both abdominal and thoracic aneurysms
· Replacement of traditional open surgery
Advantages
· Provides clinicians a method to perform in situ fenestration of endovascular grafts.
· Multiple uses include thoracic aneurysm, abdominal aneurysm, emergent repair, and traumatic aortic injury events.
· Minimally invasive approach can eventually replace open surgery.
· Alleviates the need for multiple differently-sized stent grafts by allowing customization to occur in situ.
· Reduces the time to surgery for patients to receive potentially life-saving endovascular repair, a significant improvement over a wait time of 6-8 weeks for a customized stent-graft.
· Reduces patient radiation and time spent on operating table
Invention Readiness
In vitro studies to detect orifices successfully completed; efforts underway to miniaturize device and develop an AAA phantom
IP Status
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20220192502A1
