Shockwave Medical, out of Freemont California, won European regulatory approval to introduce its Shockwave S4 Peripheral Intravascular Lithotripsy Catheter. The catheter can be used to work on arteries below the knees, shocking them with ultrasound to displace plaque compacted to the vessel walls.
The frequency of the ultrasound is tuned to the resonant frequency of calcified plaque, thereby shaking up plaque without doing undue damage to much softer vascular tissue.
From Shockwave Medical:
IVL has been demonstrated to be a safe and effective treatment for femoropopliteal arteries in the DISRUPT PAD I and II studies and for infrapopliteal below-the-knee arteries in the DISRUPT BTK study, which demonstrated the feasibility of IVL below-the-knee. Acute performance in a patient population with advanced peripheral artery disease, most suffering from critical limb ischemia, showed low percent residual stenosis (26 percent) and low vascular complications, including no perforations, distal embolization, reflow complications or abrupt closure and only one grade B dissection. There were no major adverse events including death, myocardial infarction, target limb revascularization or amputation through 30 days.
Technology info page: Shockwave’s Intravascular Lithotripsy…
Flashback: Shockwave PAD Balloon Catheters with Lithotripsy Technology CE Marked…
Via: Shockwave…