KUALA LUMPUR: The National Heart Institute (IJN) has become the first centre in Malaysia and South East Asia to implant a new stenting device, ‘Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold’ (BVS), to revolutionise the treatment of coronary artery disease.
The new technology has a prospect for positive therapeutic outcomes resulting from its unique ability to treat blocked vessel, potentially restore vessel functions and disappear within approximately two years after implantation.
IJN managing director Tan Sri Dr Robaayah Zambahari said the new BVS was made of polylactide, a proven biocompatible material commonly used in medical implants such as resorbable sutures.
“The BVS will go away in time. Because it is not made of metal, it will dissolve over time in the body. It will change into water and carbon dioxide and therefore, disappear slowly,” she told a press conference here yesterday.
“The metallic stents stays in the patient’s body. But the scaffold dissolves and disappears over time, leaving the vessel intact and leaving the vessel in its natural state with the ability to pump or move as it previously was.
“The BVS supports the artery long enough for the artery to remodel itself, and also for the drug to work to prevent cell growth,” she said.
Before BVS was introduced, the treatment for coronary artery disease has come a long way since the balloon angioplasties, followed by bare metal stents and currently drug-eluting (metalic) stents (DES), she added.
Last Tuesday, Dr Robaayah and consultant cardiologist Datuk Dr K Balachandran, aided by a team of invasive cardiovascular laboratory staff and the clinical research team, performed the initial implant on retiree Gopal Krishnan, 62.
Dr Robaayah said the BVS, also known as ABSORB, had the potential to benefit patients even more as it could extract the drug, everolimus, which prevented cell growth, over the next 90 days or so.
She said the size of the device used depended on the patient’s blood vessel which was recognised through the angiogram process.
The device measures from 2.5mm, 3mm and 3.5mm in diameter and comes in various lengths.
Dr Robaayah disclosed the device would potentially be more beneficial to paediatric patients.
“A metallic implant would require the patient to undergo surgery to remove the implant. But if the implant dissolves away, a child would not require such surgery.
“If the narrowing does not open up fully as the child grows, a new scaffold can be put without the child having to go through surgery,” she said.
Currently, the BVS is on a clinical trial.
Fifteen patients will be involved in the implant trial this year, with the cost fully borne by IJN. — Bernama