Purpose

Carry out cooperation on scientific researches and achieve commercialization.

Background

Large vascular surgery is a curse for cardiovascular surgery because of high mortality and low cure rate. It can cause fatality in a split second. The well-known victims of the disease include the United States women's volleyball star Hayman and the Chinese men's volleyball player Gang Zhu, both of whom died of acute arteriorhexis caused by Marfan's syndrome. Albert Einstein, Siguang Li also died of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. The aorta is the most important and largest blood vessel in the human body. The aorta ruptures like a flash flood inside the human body, with life stopping within minutes. Therefore, doctors need to repair the aorta before it ruptures. Aortic dissection and aortic aneurysm are the most common causes of arteriorhexis. The repair method is to replace the lesion part of the blood vessel with an artificial blood vessel.

Regarding aortic diseases, Chinese patients are different from European and American patients in that aortic aneurysm accounts for the main part of the diseases in Europe and America with an average age of onset at 60 years old. Meanwhile, in China, aortic dissection accounts for the main part of the diseases with an average age of onset at 45 years old. Therefore, Chinese doctors can learn little from their foreign colleagues in the treatment of aortic dissection and end up only relying on their own exploration.

At the time, there was only "Elephant Trunk Procedure" for treating aortic aneurysm. In conventional Elephant Trunk Procedure, the aortic wall is always torn due to limited surgical field and difficulty in getting in and out of the needle, which can lead to fatal post-operative aortic rupture. Meanwhile, the long intraoperative circulatory arrest time will significantly increase the incidence of postoperative cerebral complications.

Is there a new technical program, which can not only simplify the procedure and reduce postoperative bleeding, but also improve the rate of the distal false lumen closure and reduce the rate of reoperation? With these questions, the director of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of a top-tier hospital in Beijing came to MicroPort® in 2002 to communicate with the R&D team. He suggested that the interventional therapy rationale be applied to design stent type artificial blood vessel and delivery device Stent Graft in Surgical Operation was developed with continuous communication between the R&D team of MicroPort® and the director, as well as the teams’ unremitting efforts to improve product performance.

Matching the Stent Graft with Sun’s Procedure can treat complex aortic dissection and combined lesions of the aortic arch and descending aorta. Because of the significant therapeutic effect, the Stent Graft with Sun’s Procedure is recognized as the standard treatment of complex aortic dissection. As of the end of 2018, the Stent Graft has a 100% market share in China, with the sales volume exceeding 24,000 units.

History

In 2002, MicroPort® and Director Sun confirmed commitment to cooperation and officially launched the development of the Stent Graft in Surgical Operation.
In 2002-2003, the R&D team overcame technical difficulties one after another before applying for the national patent “Intraoperative Stent Prosthesis and Delivery System” for the new stent graft and being granted the patent.
In April 2003, the design was finalized and the clinical trials started. The trials were completed in the same year.
In August 2004, the Stent Graft in Surgical Operation was officially launched.

Achievements

Successfully completed cooperation on scientific researches, realized commercialization and completed product launch.