University Hospitals Case Medical Center is among the first in the country to offer and deploy the Abbott Absorb stent, a completely bioresorbable stent. The Absorb stent works exactly as its traditional metallic predecessors in that it opens a blocked coronary artery, with one major exception – it dissolves completely in the body two to three years after implantation.
On July 8, University Hospitals (UH) implanted its first Absorb dissolving stent on a patient with coronary artery disease. Recently approved by the FDA, Absorb is the first and only fully dissolving stent approved for the treatment of coronary artery disease.
Made of naturally dissolving material, the new device provides the same benefits as traditional stents and trial data supports its potential benefits in restoring long-term vessel function. The stent utilizes the same cath lab equipment already in place and study data supports comparable healing with the traditional metallic stent.
Like traditional metallic drug-eluding stents (DES), Absorb opens a patient’s blocked artery but then disappears after leaving no metal behind to restrict natural vessel motion. Absorb is made of polyactic acid similar to material used in dissolving sutures. Through the process of hydrolysis, the scaffold is metabolized after two to three years.
In clinical studies conducted throughout the world, the new Absorb stent demonstrated comparable short-term and mid-term outcomes compared to the leading metallic stent. After the first year of the clinical trial of approximately 2,000 patients in the United States (Absorb III randomized trial) patients who received the Absorb experienced comparable rates of specific adverse events in the intended patient population.
It also eliminates the need for layer upon layer of metal in a situation where patients experience in-stent restenosis. Additionally, it reduces the amount of metal in the coronary arteries when the patient requires multiple stents.
There are only 50 sites around the nation who will launch the Absorb product and UH is the only hospital in Ohio.
