Cordis launched the Smart Flex Self-Expanding Stent System at CX35. The device belongs to a new generation of self-expandable stents for peripheral indications and, according to the company, is “fully connected and yet flexible.”
Laurent Granier, marketing director EMEA, Cardiology and Endovascular at Cordis, spoke to CX Daily News on the features of this new device: “The Smart Flex stent shares a unique design legacy with the Cordis Smart stent—a first generation device. This device does not have any structures that may cause the artery to be injured after some time. The integrity of the stent is expected to be preserved in the long run, meaning that it will be free of fracture, especially in the popliteal and femoral arteries—which are areas where you need this type of stents to be resistant.”
Michael Iwanicky, global marketing leader for Peripheral Stents at Cordis, said that according to the Palmaz principles for stent design, a device should have high radial force and good tissue-metal ratio, and be fully connected. “Cordis has achieved all this with this device; it is fully connected and yet flexible,” Iwanicky said. “The device has been implanted in 200 patients so far”.
Following the recent acquisition of Flexible Stent Solutions—a developer of flexible peripheral arterial, venous and biliary stents—Granier commented, “Cordis has been able to expand the Smart platform to address unmet needs in the treatment of peripheral arterial disease and extend our capabilities to develop therapeutic applications into below-the-knee and venous interventions.”
“If we talk about education, Charing Cross is for us the most important endovascular meeting for vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists in the international European science arena. This is the place where we might effectively have the best impact launching this new generation of the Smart device”. He also commented that the product would be available from June 2013.
In Europe, the device gained the CE mark approval for all peripheral indications (femoral, popliteal and iliac arteries). In the USA, the Smart Flex stent has been approved for biliary indications.
