thrombectomy Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Device design and development tips for the future of stroke care

Michael Gilvarry is the GM of Cerenovus in Galway, Ireland. [Photo courtesy of Johnson & Johnson MedTech]

Simplicity and speed will be the most important innovations for medical devices that treat strokes in the years ahead.

That’s according to Michael Gilvarry, GM of Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s Cerenovus business. While he declined to divulge his neurovascular unit’s plans for future products, he offered advice for other device developers in a field where every minute counts.

A large vessel ischemic stroke can destroy more than 2 million brain neurons per minute before treatment restores oxygenated blood flow. A study quantifying the “time is brain” stroke mantra found that hourly neuron loss is equivalent to more than three years of normal aging.

“The drive for simplicity in stroke is very, very strong,” Gilvarry said in a Medical Design & Ou…

New results detail J&J Embotrap design’s first-pass performance in stroke patients

A blood clot captured by the Embotrap stent retriever [Photo courtesy of Johnson & Johnson MedTech]

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has released results for its Embotrap stent retrievers showing the next-generation design’s success in removing blood clots from ischemic stroke patients.

Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s Cerenovus subsidiary tracked outcomes for 1,000 ischemic stroke patients who underwent mechanical thrombectomy procedures with Embotrap devices as a first-line therapy.

“The positive preliminary findings of this research provide real-world results that demonstrate advances are possible in mechanical thrombectomy procedures to treat ischemic stroke,” Cerenovus Worldwide President Mark Dickinson said in a news release. “It is encouraging to see these positive results and realize the impact this data can have on improved patient outcomes and changing the trajectory of stroke.”<…

How an Embotrap stent retriever thrombectomy treats ischemic strokes

Michael Gilvarry is the GM of Cerenovus in Galway, Ireland. [Photo courtesy of Johnson & Johnson MedTech]Gilvarry is the GM of Cerenovus in Galway, Ireland. [Photo courtesy of Johnson & Johnson Medtech]

To catch a clot, you must first understand a clot, and Michael Gilvarry has spent years doing just that.

Gilvarry is the GM of Cerenovus in Galway, Ireland. He founded the Johnson & Johnson Medtech unit’s stroke science research arm and leads the acute ischemic stroke R&D portfolio.

That research led to the development and design of the Embotrap stent retriever device for thrombectomies, which helps stroke patients by removing the clots blocking the flow of blood to their brains.

“How the device design is informed by stroke science is something that we feel is really unique about the device,” he said in an interview. “All of that work we’ve done has le…