This advertorial, intended only for audiences outside the USA, is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson.
With the introduction of new devices, techniques and clinical data, aspiration thrombectomy has continued to strengthen its role in stroke care. Here, sitting down with NeuroNews at the 2026 European Society of Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy (ESMINT) congress (2–4 September, Marseille, France), Răzvan Radu (University Emergency Hospital Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania) outlines how the availability of the CEREGLIDE™ family of catheters (Johnson & Johnson [J&J]) has enhanced his interventional stroke treatments in recent years.
Debates over the relative advantages and roles for aspiration catheters versus stent retrievers in mechanical thrombectomy have persisted, with the 2017 ASTER and 2019 COMPASS trials providing little in the way of resolution, ultimately reporting comparable outcomes between the two approaches.
Radu notes that his centre has increasingly gravitated towards first-line aspiration, primarily due to improvements in catheter technologies in the years since these studies were published—including, in his view, “very trackable” long sheaths like CEREBASE™ (J&J) and “very navigable” aspiration catheters that can regularly reach clots without the need for guidewires or microcatheters.
“With your CEREBASE up in the cavernous segment, you can aspirate a clot in the M1 in around 10 minutes of procedure time,” he says. “Our results show that, overall, we have a first-pass effect [FPE] rate of 44%—but, if you take out carotid-T occlusions and look at M1s only, our FPE is more than 50%. It makes a lot of sense to start with direct aspiration in these conditions, because you might be able to achieve recanalisation with a fast and simple technique that carries a lower perforation risk. It’s also very easy for clinicians who are currently training or will do thrombectomies in new centres, because it is very reproducible.”
Furthermore, Radu points out, it is often relatively quick and straightforward to switch to a stent retriever if initial aspiration-only passes are unsuccessful—and complex anatomies or trackability concerns may lead operators to deploy a stent retriever in addition to aspiration as a first-line approach in certain cases.
“But I have stopped using stent retrievers alone; I only use them via this combined technique,” he adds. “Stent retrievers will not disappear—they are great for difficult anatomies, and they can help to enhance aspiration in some cases—but I think the major future improvements in thrombectomy will come from better access catheters as well as interactivity and rapid exchange of different aspiration catheters.”
Advances in aspiration
Among the recent technological introductions Radu mentions is CEREGLIDE 92—a 0.092-inch catheter that received CE-mark approval last year.
“I’m a very big fan of these ‘super-large-bore’ catheters,” he comments. “I think having a larger bore at the level of the carotid-T or M1 gives you two big advantages. First of all, it lets you ingest a big quantity of thrombus that we were previously not able to ingest very well; even with stent retrievers, we had a lot of distal emboli in these cases. In my opinion, for the roughly 20–25% of strokes caused by carotid-T occlusions, increased adoption and more people learning how to use them will lead to super-large-bore catheters becoming the aspiration catheter we use in these cases—with the possible exception of very old patients or those with type-three aortic arches, in which these catheters are trickier to use.
“Secondly, they act similarly to an intermediate catheter in aneurysm treatment, in my opinion, improving the vectors of whatever you want to do. In my experience, the higher you have your guiding catheter—in this case, a super-large-bore catheter that can be thought of as an active guiding catheter—the more success you will have, because you will reduce the tortuosities of all the smaller catheters and improve your catheterisation more distally. And, most importantly, you will be able to control flow, because bigger catheters already reduce flow significantly, and you basically have the same effect as a balloon guide catheter—but without the trackability issues—once you start aspirating.”
Radu explains that, using this approach, CEREGLIDE 92 can be placed in the cavernous segment to directly aspirate large proximal clots or to support advancement of the mid-sized CEREGLIDE 71 catheter to target clots in the M1 segment. Based on his experiences to date, CEREGLIDE 92 provides both stability and flow control during the procedure, which may reduce the likelihood of distal clot embolisation and thus lower the risk of complications. In his view, smaller catheter sizes like CEREGLIDE 57 and 42 can be advanced even more distally from within their larger-bore counterparts to retrieve clots located in the M2 segment and beyond.
“Using these interconnected devices, you can very easily and very safely enhance your final result to TICI [thrombolysis in cerebral infarction] 2c–3,” he adds. “My personal opinion is that these are very trackable catheters as compared to previous generations, it’s easy to navigate them to the clot and, I think, they are less traumatic than using a stent retriever.”
A bright future
CEREGLIDE 71 was the first CEREGLIDE catheter Radu started using following its European introduction in 2024 and, discussing this device, he highlights its trackability and kink resistance—both driven by the TruCourse technology (J&J) with which each catheter is equipped. This year, CEREGLIDE 57 and 42 also became available to Radu, and he reports “great experiences” with these catheters to date as well.
“They are a major addition to the market,” he comments. “In my personal opinion, CEREGLIDE 42 is an amazing catheter that’s easy to use. In my first case, I needed to use a stent retriever, and the catheter’s length and trackability allowed me to perform a combined technique easily in a distal vessel. CEREGLIDE 57 is also something we needed because we didn’t have many options for 135–150cm 5Fr catheters—but having this, in my opinion, really facilitates excellent recanalisation outcomes.
“If you are happy to accept TICI 2b recanalisation, you do not need these catheters; but, if you want to achieve TICI 2c–3, you will need these smaller aspiration catheters around 15–30% of the time [depending on initial clot location].”
Radu concludes that, as a whole, the CEREGLIDE family of catheters is “solving a lot of issues that we had before”.
“We are expanding stroke thrombectomy,” he explains. “In Romania, we went from 400 [annual] thrombectomies a few years ago to more than 2,000 today. This has been achieved by training people—there are new people getting trained and many new centres being opened, and these centres do not have a lot of experience. For them, using aspiration is much easier than using stent retrievers. Also, they will need to go more distally to retrieve emboli and get complete recanalisation.
“Based on my personal opinion and experience to date, the inter-compatible CEREGLIDE catheters are highly navigable, highly trackable, and generate strong aspiration force, and this makes it very easy for people that do not have the same experience as somebody doing 200 thrombectomies per year to deliver good results for their patients. It’s a fast, cost-effective and very sustainable way of providing positive recanalisation outcomes.”
Important Information: Please refer to the latest Instructions for Use and/or Package Insert provided by the manufacturer of the device for the details such as indications, contraindications, side effects, warnings, and precautions.
The opinions and experiences shared in this article are the personal perspectives of a paid HCP and do not necessarily reflect the views of J&J MedTech Neurovascular.
M_EM_NEU_ISCH_422581
©Johnson & Johnson and its affiliates 2026
