Medtronic began on 31 March, 2009 the international launch of the Driver Sprint RX Coronary Stent System, which received the CE mark in February and is planned to be commercially available in more than 100 countries worldwide.
“The Driver stent system has always been very deliverable,” said Dr C Dubois, Leuven University Hospital, Belgium. “Now, the new Driver Sprint system makes it even more deliverable for the most challenging anatomy.”
The new system combines the Driver bare metal stent with an improved delivery system.
It incorporates a new tip design for a low profile and an enhanced shaft design which together greatly improve the device’s deliverability. These innovations are also incorporated in Medtronic’s Endeavor Sprint and Resolute drug?eluting stent systems.
The Driver (www.driverstent.com) is the platform of Medtronic’s coronary stents, which provide physicians with choices to address the spectrum of clinical needs. Its unique modular construction and ultrathin, round, edgeless struts allow for smooth delivery. This design also provides excellent radial strength and high conformability to the vessel wall. More than two million Driver stents have been implanted worldwide since 2002, when the device was first approved for use in clinical practice.
The Driver stent has been thoroughly evaluated in a variety of research settings. The outcomes of more than 3,400 patients followed in both registries and randomised controlled trials have demonstrated the device’s clinical efficacy. Short?term target lesion revascularisation (TLR) rates for Driver patients in registries are low, ranging from 3.4-9.4% at six months and from 6.7- 7% at nine months. In addition, nearly 600 Driver patients were followed to four years in ENDEAVOR II, and five?year data from this trial is due for release at EuroPCR in May. The target lesion revascularisation rate for these Driver patients (n=599) at four years is low for a bare metal stent at 15.8%.
