Volcano Corporation (San Diego, CA) has launched the Crux Vena Cava Filter in the US for preventing cases of pulmonary embolisms (PE). According to the American Heart Association, each year 600,000 patients in the US develop a PE and approximately 120,000 – 150,000 result in death. Besides anti-coagulation therapies, PE can be prevented by implanting a filter at the inferior vena cava to prevent the emboli from traveling into the right side of the heart and into the lungs.
Commonly available vena cava filters work well to trap the emboli, but are prone to tilting, migration and penetration through the wall of the inferior vena cava. Volcano’s Crux is touted to be the only filter with a self centering, symmetrical, double helical design that is not prone to filter tilt. The device makes use of an ePTFE filter web that traps potentially fatal thrombi, and the filter system can be retrieved in two ways, either via the jugular vein or via the femoral vein. The tissue anchors in the implant facilitate optimal fixation with minimal perforation, and the trans-luminal filtration design allows for filtration across the whole vessel lumen. The implant has sufficient radial force to cover a vena cava range of 17-28mm and is deployed using a pre-loaded delivery system that makes use of a standard pin-pull technique.
Press release: Volcano Corporation Announces First Commercial Implantations of Crux® Vena Cava Filter…
Product page: Crux Vena Cava Filter…
Flashbacks: Fogarty’s Crux Bi-directionally Retrievable IVC Filter Gets FDA Nod…; Fogarty’s Crux Vena Cava Filter Proving Itself a Safer, Easier Option for Recurrent Pulmonary Embolisms (videos)…; Crux Biomedical Inferior Vena Cava Filter with Bi-Directional Retrieval Receives CE Mark…