The Matrix2 360o Detachable Coils feature a new 360-degree complex shape designed to allow greater conformability and more uniform distribution within intracranial aneurysms. The design includes 1.5 loops at the beginning of the coil that are 25 percent smaller than the overall coil diameter. This multi-diameter design is intended to offer more precise, controlled delivery and facilitate first-time placement. The smooth biopolymer coil surface also decreases coil-on-coil friction by 35 percent over the Company's first generation coils in order to facilitate coil delivery and promote aneurysm packing.
"For more than a decade, Boston Scientific has been the leader in innovation for less-invasive aneurysm treatments," said Milton McColl, President of Boston Scientific's Neurovascular business. "The Matrix2 360o Coils complement our existing Matrix® Coils portfolio and offer our latest advancements in coil embolization. The new shape of the coils is designed to offer greater conformability and more efficient packing to facilitate treatment across a wider variety of intracranial aneurysms."
A brain aneurysm, also called an intracranial or cerebral aneurysm, is an abnormal weakening of an artery in the brain that causes a ballooning of the vessel wall. Ruptured aneurysms can cause strokes, brain damage and death by leaking oxygenated blood into the areas around the brain. It is estimated that 3 to 6 percent of people in the U.S. have brain aneurysms, the majority of which remain undiagnosed. Historically, most brain aneurysm patients in the U.S. have been treated by neurosurgical clipping, a surgical procedure that involves temporarily removing a section of the skull. However, patients are increasingly turning to less-invasive treatments using endovascular coil embolization, in which tiny platinum coils are threaded through the vascular system and deployed into the aneurysm, blocking blood flow into the aneurysm and preventing rupture.
The Matrix2 360o Coils are offered in a full range of sizes and softness grades, expanding Boston Scientific's family of high-performance aneurysm coils, which includes the Guglielmi Detachable Coils (GDC®) and the Matrix® Detachable Coils. The Matrix2 360o Coils leverage established GDC 10 technology, which has already been used to treat more than 10,000 patients worldwide. The product line now offers coil diameter sizes ranging from 2 mm to 24 mm and coil lengths from 4 mm to 40 mm. Boston Scientific also offers a full complement of products for endovascular aneurysm embolization including microcatheters, guidewires and microdelivery stent systems.
Since their introduction in 1991, Boston Scientific coils have been used by physicians worldwide to treat more than 150,000 patients, deploying more than 1 million coils. Boston Scientific is the worldwide market leader in the treatment of neurovascular aneurysms.
About Brain Aneurysms
Each year approximately 30,000 people in the United States suffer a ruptured brain aneurysm, and more than 50 percent of these patients die within the first 30 days after rupture. If diagnosed properly, patients with aneurysms can be treated before a rupture occurs. Conventional neurosurgical clipping often requires a long hospital stay and can be associated with higher complication rates. Less-invasive endovascular coil treatment has been associated with lower risk of negative outcomes, shorter hospital stays and shorter recovery times, compared with surgery. It is estimated that endovascular coiling is now used in more than 50 percent of patients treated for brain aneurysms.
Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices whose products are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. For more information, please visit: www.bostonscientific.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Boston Scientific wishes to caution the reader of this press release that actual results may differ from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and may be adversely affected by, among other things, risks associated with new product development and commercialization, clinical trials, intellectual property, regulatory approvals, competitive offerings, Boston Scientific's overall business strategy, and other factors described in Boston Scientific's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.