On 16 September 2011, Stentys, a medical technology company that is commercialising the world’s first and only self-apposing stent to treat acute myocardial infarction, announced that its self-apposing stent has been implanted into more than 1,000 patients internationally.
“There is a clear adoption pattern underway of the Stentys self-apposing stent to routinely treat acute myocardial infarction patients in the hospitals where we have started marketing our product,” said Gonzague Issenmann, CEO and co-founder of Stentys. “The ability to solve the stent sizing dilemma that cardiologists are confronted with in many cases with conventional stents, as well as the elimination of its dreadful consequence, malapposition, are recognised as a real breakthrough by our customers and make the Stentys stent an indispensable tool for every cath lab”.
The self-apposing feature of the Stentys stent ensures optimal apposition during thrombus and vessel spasm relief in the critical initial hours and days after an acute myocardial infarction procedure, thereby avoiding malapposition, a cause of thrombotic events and repeat myocardial infarction, and a significant concern to cardiologists.
The APPOSITION II randomised trial compared the Stentys self-apposing stent with a conventional, market-leading stent in patients suffering a heart attack. It showed that, three days after an acute myocardial infarction, 28% of patients treated with conventional stents displayed severe malapposition, meaning that the stent was not completely in contact with the artery wall, whereas none of the patients treated with Stentys had any malapposition.
