A Medical Device Daily

Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported the start of ENGAGE, a study that will evaluate the performance of the Endurant stent graft, an implantable device designed to provide an advanced minimally-invasive alternative to open surgical repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

"ENGAGE seeks to involve more patients, at more sites and in more countries than any previous study of its kind," said to Robert Fitridge, MD, of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Adelaide, Australia), one of the study's seven executive committee members. "The data this multicenter international study collects on the Endurant stent graft will help physicians worldwide determine how best to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms in the real-world setting of standard clinical practice."

Medtronic says that the Endurant stent graft system expands its portfolio of aortic repair technologies, which offer physicians a broad array of devices to choose from in treating patients with aortic aneurysms. It received the CE mark in July 2008 and is now commercially available in more than 80 countries.

Use of the Endurant stent graft system in the U.S. is limited to an investigational clinical trial.