Innovative Mesh Treats Aneurysms Inside the Brain

A braided implant could provide an effective, minimally invasive treatment option for life threatening bifurcated intracranial aneurysms.

The Cerus Endovascular (Oxford, United Kingdom) Contour Neurovascular System is composed of a pre-shaped fine mesh braided implant with shape memory properties and a micro-catheter delivery system. The implant, which combines a flow diverter and a flow disruptor, is designed to target the neck of an intracranial aneurysm (within the aneurysm sac itself), away from the vulnerable dome. The enhanced safety profile allows it to be used to treat a range of aneurysm morphologies and sizes, including unruptured wide-necked bifurcations.

Additional features include self-anchoring; support of neo-intimal growth across the mesh and subsequent thrombosis of aneurysm; deployment with existing endovascular clinical techniques; electrolytic detachment; no intra-arterial stabilizing component; a reduction (or even elimination) of dual anti-platelet therapy; and straightforward sizing, as the Contour does not aim for bulk replacement of the aneurysmal cavity, but only targets the neck area. The Contour Neurovascular System has received breakthrough device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“The Contour Neurovascular System delivers an important clinical option and represents a new, and potentially disruptive, standalone solution for the treatment of bifurcated saccular intracranial aneurysms,” said Dr. Stephen Griffin, President of Cerus Endovascular. “Importantly, physicians who have used the system have highlighted the benefits inherent in its unique simplicity, including a simple sizing approach of the device to the aneurysm width, ease of deliverability and controlled deployment.”

Wide-neck aneurysms are defined as having a neck greater or equal to four mm or a dome-to-neck ratio of less than two. They are often untreatable by surgical clipping, as many wide- neck aneurysms are in vessels deep within the brain that are not amendable to being treated by open brain surgery. Coiling wide neck aneurysms, on the other hand, could lead to coil protrusion and/or embolization, as it is difficult to achieve and maintain sufficiently dense coil packing of the aneurysm to permanently exclude blood flow.

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