On 4 February 2013, at the 3rd Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) International Endovascular Stroke Conference and Joint Cerebrovascular Section Annual Meeting (4–5 February 2013, Honolulu, Hawaii), the Penumbra 5MAX DDC and 4MAX DDC distal delivery catheters were launched.
The new devices, according to a company release, are designed to simplify delivery of a wide variety of endovascular therapies to the brain. The DDC family delivers distal delivery capability via a novel advanced polymer and Nitinol coil reinforcement design at the distal tip to enable easy tracking through tortuous vessels. All DDC catheters have large tapered lumens, which are compatible with most microcatheter-delivered neuro endovascular therapies today. The DDC exclusive tapered lumen design enables higher contrast flow and better visualisation while maintaining the flexibility to help physicians deliver therapies more efficiently.
“The support provided by the 4MAX DDC helped stabilise the tip of my coil delivery catheter enabling significantly more control over coil loops as I delivered and positioned them in a very challenging aneurysm,” said John M Whapham, medical director of Stroke and Endovascular Neurosurgery at Mercy St Vincent’s Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, USA, who performed one of the first DDC cases in the United States. “The new 4MAX DDC design tracked significantly more smoothly than currently available intermediate catheters and thus may help reduce vessel trauma. Further, it provides the first practical delivery technology which combines guide catheter-like support proximally, with microcatheter-like properties as it is navigated more distally.”
Whapham added: “The DDC family will be my go-to catheter for a wide variety of patients and therapies due to the ability to bring a stable catheter construct to even the most distal anatomy.”
