dbeard@dominionpost.com
MORGANTOWN – In the ever-evolving quest to improve treatment for stroke victims, WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute recently performed the first in-human procedure using a new technology to treat strokes caused by blood clots.
It’s called the Broadway System, by Stryker Neurovascular. Dr. SoHyun Boo, medical director for Neurointerventional Surgery in RNI’s Department of Neuroradiology, explained the device and its use.
The Broadway represents an advance on existing catheter technology for treating ischemic strokes – strokes caused by blood clots – using the catheter to suck out the clot, he said. It’s something several companies are exploring.
He used the analogy of a drinking straw. “One of the thoughts is that a bigger straw can suck the clot out better. But the engineering: You have to develop something that is a straw that is flexible enough to navigate around all the different turns of the blood vessels, but stiff enough that if you were to put suction on it, the straw doesn’t just collapse,” he said.
“So that technology is what these engineers at these companies continually work on and try to improve. That technology of, ‘Can we get the biggest straw that we can to provide the most suction that we can effectively use,’ is the race that everyone is after.”
Stryker’s fact sheet says the Broadway 8 catheter’s outside diameter is 2.49 millimeters (0.098 inch – not quite a tenth of an inch).
The Broadway, Boo said, is a system that has found a balance of flexibility and size to be able to get to the clot quickly for removal. It enhances the speed and precision of clot removal, which is critical to minimizing brain damage and improving patient outcomes.
Among the system components are the Broadway 8 Catheter and the FastPass Delivery Assist Catheter.
“I’ve spent time with this company that made this,” Boo said. “We’ve tested them in cadavers, for example. and used feedback during all kinds of testing in the lab.”
The FDA gave Stryker its OK to market the Broadway System in December. “Then we were the first use it in a human here.”
The procedure is called endovascular thrombectomy. RNI’s first successful use of the device was performed on a patient with a tandem occlusion, meaning blockage of both the carotid artery in the neck and a blockage of one of the main arteries in the brain, called the middle cerebral artery.
The procedure was the culmination of RNI’s work with Stryker in the development of this system, RNI said, including working with Stryker’s research and development team in consultation and testing in cadavers to achieve FDA approval.
Boo said the team at Ruby Memorial responds to about 120 ischemic strokes per year.
The rub is that while RNI was the first team to use the Broadway, it’s so new to market the hospital has none in stock yet. “We use similar types of devices that we’ve had up to this point prior to the Broadway.”
Boo said in a release announcing the procedure, “‘Time is Brain’ is a consistent mantra for stroke care. This procedure makes it easier to perform faster. Every minute the brain is not getting blood flow, about 2 million neurons are lost. Therefore, it’s important to recognize the signs and symptoms of a stroke in order to get to a center, be rapidly evaluated and potentially get this procedure done as quickly as possible.”
