Rapid Medical has announced the first procedures in the USA with the breakthrough deflectable access platform Drivewire 24, doing so at the ongoing Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) annual meeting (22–26 July, Colorado Springs, USA). This milestone follows the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the device.
Rapid claims that, with active technology, Drivewire articulates a wide range of catheters for direct access to endovascular locations.
“Drivewire addresses a major unmet need in the endovascular space,” said Shahram Majidi (Mount Sinai Health System, New York City, USA). “It transforms access across a range of procedures, from aneurysms to strokes and more. We’re always looking for devices to make procedures faster, safer [and] less expensive. My first experience with Drivewire suggests it could do all of these.”
In two cases completed by Majidi, Drivewire 24 navigated an aspiration catheter directly to an M2 arterial occlusion for excellent reperfusion at the first pass. In the second case, Drivewire navigated complex turns to place two flow diverters in a large, multilobed intracranial aneurysm.
Drivewire provides high-performance intravascular steering, according to a recent press release from Rapid, as physicians control the direction and shape of the guidewire tip in real time—eliminating the need to remove the wire to reshape it. The device also features variable support to articulate a wide range of micro and intermediate catheters without advanced forerun, or additional support devices. This results in precise navigation via the most direct route through the neuro and peripheral vasculatures, the release adds.
“With Drivewire, our design goal was to bring new levels of access and control to the interventional suite while improving best-in-class guidewires,” commented Giora Kornblau, chief technology officer at Rapid. “When physicians are looking for technologies that increase the clinical possibilities and safety for the patient, we want Rapid to be the first place they look.”
