Initial experience with the Europass™: A new ultra-low profile monorail balloon catheter

✍ Scribed by Zimarino, Marco ;Corcos, Thierry ;Favereau, Xavier ;Tamburino, Corrado ;Toussaint, Marcel ;Spaulding, Christian ;Guérin, Yves

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 307 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-6569
• DOI: 10.1002/ccd.1810330117

✦ Synopsis

One of the causes for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) failure is the inability to cross the lesion with the balloon catheter after guidewire positioning. The Europass@ coronary angioplasty catheter is a monorail Duralynm balloon catheter developed to enhance lesion crossability and to overcome this limitation. This system was evaluated in 50 patients in which target lesions were chronic total coronary occlusions (12 cases) or stenoses that could not be reached or crossed by other new monorail balloon catheters. Overall procedural success was obtained in 49/50 patients (98%), using a single Europassm balloon catheter in 46/50 patients (92%), with no in-hospital complications.

Its low profile, small distal shaft, and excellent trackability allowed successful angioplasty in cases where other catheters failed. This balloon catheter represents a significant advance in angioplasty technology and can be considered as a first-choice device for a safe and expeditious single-operator procedure.