New Retriever Removes Clots in Ischemic Stroke Patients

The Merci L6 Retriever is designed to restore blood flow by engaging, capturing, and removing blood clots. The retriever joins the other four products of the Merci range of retrievers, incorporating a 2.7-mm cylindrical helix with attached filaments, which provide an additional mechanism for securing the clot during retrieval. The retriever itself is a shaped wire constructed of nitinol, a memory wire that allows delivery of the retriever in linear form using standard catheterization techniques. A small puncture in the groin is used to introduce the Merci retriever into an artery leading to the brain. Upon reaching the targeted area and deployed, the retriever returns to its original shape.

The Merci Retrieval system, a product of Concentric Medical (Mountain View, CA, USA), has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The memory function of the retriever, which returns to its coiled shape when deployed in and around the blood clot in the brain, is intended to help reduce potential damage to the delicate artery walls in the brain, which can lead to dissection, perforation, and ultimately to hemorrhage and/or death, which are common risks among interventional devices.

The system offers an additional option for ischemic stroke patients, especially those who have failed intravenous clot-dissolving drug therapy or who could not be treated within the three-hour limit established for intravenous drug administration.


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Concentric Medical