Just one day after the FDA cleared the Abbott Absorb GT1 Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold System for use in the United States, a 73 year old Arizona man became the first in the country to receive the device. The surgery was performed at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center.
The patient, Doug Taylor, was game to be a trailblazer. He tells the Associated Press, “I like the idea that there’s not a piece of metal sitting in my artery that’ll be there forever.”
At a post-surgery press conference, David Rizik, MD, the cardiologist who performed the procedure, called it “a monumental step forward in the treatment of cardiovascular patients.” He added that the non-permanent nature of the device allowed for greater flexibility when considering any future surgical interventions in the area of the heart.
(Image source: Associated Press video)
Rizik has long been an advocate of this sort of technology, telling Cardiac Interventions Today in a 2010 interview, “I believe the next frontier in [drug-eluting stent] technology is developing a fully bioabsorbable implant and defining its role in percutaneous revascularization.”
A few hours after the surgery on Taylor was complete, a patient in Midwest became the second U.S. recipient of the device.
