Product & Industry News

fibrotic liver parenchyma and reach the portal vein, even when there is very distorted anatomy” said Donna D’Souza, an interventional radiologist at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, USA).

The Traveler Series, which includes Traveler 16, Traveler 21, and Traveler 38, is now available in the USA and Canada.

blocked vein with four occluded stents.

Williams made the following comment on the procedure—“I had crossed the segment in this patient three years ago, but today it would have been impossible with existing devices. The patient’s leg was in a desperate condition. Traversa not only made this procedure possible, but also much easier and impressively faster.”

Microbot Medical’s Liberty robotic system remote controller receives design patent allowance in Japan

through the liver during transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) procedures. Traveler supplements Argon’s 2021 launch of Scorpion, which also supports TIPS procedures.

Traveler is designed to improve component visualisation and durability, which are common challenges of the TIPS procedure. “Several innovative features of the Traveler set make it easier to access the portal vein compared to other sets on the market. Firstly, the metal cannula is very robust, and the shaping tool allows it to be curved to great degrees without compromising component integrity. Secondly, the puncture needle is longer and seems sharper, making it easier to pass through severely

Conference calendar

25–27 April

Charing Cross (CX) Symposium 2023 London, UK cxsymposium.com

10–13 May

Venous Symposium 2023 New York, USA venous-symposium.com

18–21 May

Global Embolization Oncology Symposium Technologies (GEST) 2023 New York, USA annual.thegestgroup.com/GEST23

VeinWay crossing tool sees first-in-human compassionate use for venous recanalisation

In a first-in-human, compassionate use case approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), University of Michigan Health (Ann Arbor, USA) interventional radiologists David M Williams and Minhaj

Khaja successfully used VeinWay’s Traversa for venous recanalisation to save a patient’s leg that was close to being amputated.

Traversa, a newly developed tool for crossing tough occlusions in veins, enabled the physicians to recanalise a previously uncrossable vascular pathway, which included a 20cm-long

Khaja said that “the device allowed us to take the path that we wanted rather than being forced to troubleshoot the path chosen by the sharp recanalisation devices available today. With Traversa, we were able to choose the angle and the length of the throw of the needle. This enabled us to pick the pathway and if we did not like it, we were able to readjust. I think that allowed us to safely get through the occlusions and the stents.”

Microbot Medical has announced that Japan is the most recent global jurisdiction to recognise the interface design of the Liberty robotic system’s remote controller. The design patent, which was issued by the Japan Patent Office (JPO), complements similar design patent allowances in the USA and Europe, further strengthening the company’s global intellectual property (IP) portfolio.

“We believe the ability to perform an endovascular procedure remotely, while reducing radiation exposure and the physical strain due to wearing a lead vest for an extensive period of time, is a major benefit to the physician and patients,” commented Eyal Morag, the company’s chief medical officer. “By eliminating these issues, it allows the healthcare provider to better focus on delivering the best patient care to achieve better outcomes.”

During the recent animal study, as well as other physician-sponsored lab sessions in Europe and the Americas, when using the Liberty robotic system, physicians were given the option to use the remote-controlled activation from the safety and convenience of the interventional suite control room.

1–3 June

International Conference on Complications in Interventional Radiology (ICCIR) 2023 Poertschach, Austria cirse.org/events/iccir

6–9 June

Leipzig Interventional Course (LINC) 2023 Leipzig, Germany leipzig-interventional-course.com

21–24 June

European Conference on Embolotherapy (ET) 2023 Valencia, Spain etconference.org/attend/et-2023

9–13 September

Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) 2023 Copenhagen, Denmark cirsecongress.cirse.org

8–10 November

British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) 2023 Newport, UK bsir.org/meetings/bsir-asm-2023

25–29 January

Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO) 2024 Long Beach, USA sio-central.org

23–28 March

Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) 2024 Salt Lake City, USA sirmeeting.org