Stenting with Emboshield Pro (Abbott Vascular) for Carotid Arteryt Disease becoming safer in high-risk patients

Placing a stent in a key artery in the neck is safer than ever in patients ineligible for the standard surgical treatment of carotid artery disease, according to results from the PROTECT trial designed to examine the safety of Emboshield Pro, from Abbott Vascular. Emboshield Pro is an embolic protection device used in combination with stenting to help enlarge the blocked artery and capture any plaque that could dislodge during the process. Clinical outcomes, including death, stroke or myocardial infarction (DSMI), show that of the 220 who were treated with Emboshield Pro, three patients had a minor stroke (1.4 %), one had a major stroke (0.5%), and one had a myocardial infarction (0.5%), for an overall DSMI rate of 2.3 percent, the lowest rate of complications ever recorded for the procedure in similar multicenter high-risk patient populations. According to Jon Matsumura, head of Vascular Surgery at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, results are consistent with the trends from other trials.