The first case report of Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffolds (BVS) implanted in human coronary arteries was in 2006. A decade on and over 120,000 patients worldwide have received Absorb, the most widely studied of the resorbable devices. The main theoretical advantage of a BVS over a conventional metallic drug eluting stent (DES) is that the artery will be free of long term implant with restoration of vasomotion. An extensive research programme has been undertaken with several studies across different patient demographics comparing Absorb with Xience (the most widely studied DES) showing non-inferiority at one year with long follow up awaited.
Many of the patients within the clinical trials to date have had relatively simple lesions treated but there are trials actively recruiting that are testing the device in more complex lesions subsets.
The are many technical aspects of BVS implantation that require additional training above standard PCI techniques that an operator should acquire before considering use of the device. Lesions require more extensive preparation than perhaps is necessary for routine DES use and intra-coronary imaging is really important particularly in the early learning curve.
Dr. Peter O’Kane, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Bournemouth (UK).
Dr Peter O’Kane has been a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Royal Bournemouth Hospital for over 8 years. This is currently the UK’s highest volume non-surgical PCI centre and he annually performs more than 450 PCI cases. The case mix is complex particularly amongst the many elderly patients who have multi-vessel coronary disease which includes extensively calcified lesions, bifurcations including left main stem and chronic total occlusions.
He is committed to teaching and is a National Proctor for Rotational atherectomy and Optical Frequency Domain Imaging (OFDI), European proctor for laser atherectomy and International proctor for the Axxess dedicated bifurcation stent and Absorb. He has trained Consultant colleagues from the UK, Europe and Asia in the multiple adjunctive devices in PCI, intra-coronary imaging and with particular relevance to this presentation, the implantation techniques and rationale for use of Absorb.
He has published over 35 manuscripts in the last decade including original work, international collaboration and case studies. He has authored 10 book chapters particularly related to laser atherectomy.
Abbott Vascula & Philips Volcano
* Abbott Vascular & Philips Volcano have supported the distribution of the recorded BVS webinar. They were not involved in the live presentation and had no input in the content.
This webinar is to inform and educate interventional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons on
