Elderly man gets Asia’s first biosoluble stent

NEW DELHI - Asia’s first biosoluble stent has been successfully implanted in a 65-year-old man for treating his artery blockage, doctors said here Friday.

M.P. Singh, a native of Bihar, was the first patient to undergo the procedure Tuesday.

The surgery at the Escorts Heart Institute was part of the trials being conducted for the new Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold, a stent made of biodegradable polymer.

“Unlike the normal metallic stents which remain in the artery forever, these stents dissolve completely in two years time, leaving the artery as good as untouched,” Ashok Seth, Fortis Escorts heart hospital cardiovescular sciences chairman, said.

The operation places a stent, a spring like structure in the artery, mounted on a balloon. The balloon, which breaks the blockage, is placed as a support so that the artery does not block again. So far, mettalic stents were being used for the surgery.

“This technique relieves the patient from the adverse effects of metallic stents, which compelled patients to take blood thinning medicines. With these stents, risk can be reduced as they dissolve in two years’ time,” Seth said.

Made of a biosoluble polymer, the stent dissolves through the citiric acid cycle inside the body, known as ‘Krebs cycle’, and gets converted into carbon dioxide and water.

A layer of medication on the stent is also biosoluble and is dissolved in first six months of placing the stent.

Usually it is seen that if the blockage is not repeated within six months, it is never repeated on the same location, Seth said.

However, asked if the new technique would totally replace metallic stents, he said it was too early to say that.

This stent cannot be used on every one. Presently, we have discreet criteria, we use it on people with a maximum of two artery blocked. The blockage should be less than 28 mm in length and two and a half to three and a half mm in thickness. Mostly, it is according to the size of stents available, he said.

The doctor said many more patients have already been identified for the surgery and at least two will be operated upon in the coming week.

Done through minimal invasive methods like leproscopy or robotic surgery, patients are back to their feet in 24 hours of the operation.

This is the next generation of stent, once it comes in the commercial market, it will take up more than 80 percent of the stent market, he says.

Manufactured by US-based medical device company Abbott, the stent is expected to be a major breakthrough in the treatment of coronary artery diseases, which result from blockage of arteries.

The operation has been done under the Absorb Extend trial, the second phase of worldwide trials of the new technique. The first round saw trials on a total of 120 patients in New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

“We are presently carrying out trials in 100 centres over 40 countries. These trials would involve 1,000 patients,” Abbot’s regional director and general manager of South East Asia Amit Kumar told IANS.

“So far, a total of 200 people have been treated world over, using this technique,” he added.

According to Kumar, a total of 100 patients will be taken for the trials in India across six centers in Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Lucknow.

“The Drug Controller General of India has been very supportive and we got approval for the trial approximately in six months of applying,” he said.

“The trials will get completed in a year and a half, after that a complete report will be compiled. We are expecting to launch it commercially by 2013 and India will be among the first countries where it will be launched,” he added.