Shanghai, China – 19 May, 2014 – Shanghai MicroPort Medical (Group) Co announced today WILLIS Intracranial Stent System has been granted “Shanghai Innovative Product” by Shanghai Municipal Committee of Economy and Informatization, Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau and Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration.
Researched and developed independently by MicroPort NeuroTech, WILLIS is a first-of-its-kind product in China, indicated for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. WILLIS vascular reconstruction achieves complete occlusion, and unlike traditional treatment using stent-assisted coil embolization, WILLIS effectively shunts the blood flow and keeps it off of the aneurysm wall.
Intracranial aneurysm is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel. The disease is regarded as a bomb ticking in brain to explode at any time, with incidence highest in people aged between 40 and 60. If an intracranial aneurysm ruptures, blood quickly leaks into the space around the brain, leading to subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), and patients suffering from neurological deficit or death from initial bleeding. In some cases, even before rupturing intracranial aneurysms can increase pressure on relevant nerves, causing neurological functional symptoms, such as vision impairment.