A Medical Device Daily

Tryton Medical (Durham, North Carolina), a developer of stents designed to treat bifurcation lesions, reported that a U.S. patent has been awarded for its Tryton Side Branch Stent System.

According to Tryton, the stent offers a dedicated strategy for treating atherosclerotic lesions at a bifurcation. These lesions have presented a challenge for cardiologists since the earliest days of angioplasty, the company said. Current approaches to treating these bifurcation lesions have limitations, most often neglecting the side branch. In cases where the side branch is treated it is often left unstented, leaving it vulnerable to higher rates of restenosis, the re-narrowing of a treated blood vessel, the company noted.

The Tryton Side Branch Stent System is designed to offer a dedicated strategy for treating atherosclerotic lesions in the side branch at the site of a bifurcation. These areas of the vascular system are a common location for plaque and are particularly challenging to treat with currently available stent systems. According to Tryton, roughly 20% of patients treated for coronary artery disease have diseased bifurcated lesions.

Tryton's cobalt chromium stent is deployed in the side branch artery using a standard single-wire balloon-expandable stent delivery system. A conventional drug-eluting stent is then placed in the main vessel. The company noted that the system demonstrated "excellent" six-month clinical results in a first-in-man study of the system in 30 patients, with no restenosis occurring in the side branch artery. The stent system has received CE mark approval in Europe and is not approved in the U.S.