Polymeric BVS Absorb technically more difficult to insert and deploy in coronary arteries compared to standard metallic drug eluting stents.
We have collaborated with interventional cardiologists at Quebec Heart-Lung Institute (Quebec City, Canada) who have compared the safety and feasibility of using bioabsorbable vascular scaffold (BVS, Absorb by Abbott Vascular) versus biostable (corrosion-resistant) metallic drug-eluting stents (DES), implanted by percutaneous transradial approach (TRA). TRA has been used as the preferred access-site for more than 20 years at Quebec Heart-Lung Institute. Results have been published in Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine 2018:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1553838918300022
Owing to the polymeric nature of the BVS-Absorb lower mechanical properties associated with thicker strut thickness compared to state-of-the-art metallic DES, it was anticipated that BVS would be technically more challenging to deliver and deploy, especially by TRA. This was indeed the case as procedure durations with BVS were significantly longer and were associated with statistically significant higher levels of contrast volume and radiation exposure compared to DES.
Since TRA represents the optimal access-site to treat all-kind of patients and all sorts of coronary lesions, these findings strongly support the main goal for Nanostent inc.
Nanostent inc. works to provide physicians and patients the first fully biodegradable metallic stent with design and mechanical properties similar to current state-of-art biostable (corrosion-resistant) metallic stents with a pre-determined corrosion rate to slowly degrade and ultimately restore the vessel integrity.
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Olivier F. Bertrand, MD, PhD
President