Surgical: Less-invasive treatment for peripheral arterial disease

The Gore Viabahn Endoprosthesis with Heaprin Bioactive Surface device developed by W L Gore & Associates, is a less-invasive, textile-based stent graft with Gore-Tex membrane designed to treat peripheral arterial disease. Approved by US Food and Drug Administration as a reliever for hardening of the thigh artery, is constructed with durable, reinforced, biocompatible, expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) liner attached to an external Nitinol stent structure. The Gore-Tex material stops the tissue from growing inside the tube, keeping the heparin anchored to its surface to allow the medication to interact with the blood for years and by using stent placement, reduce the chance of infection and other complications. This device has been successfully implanted in the superficial femoral artery (SFA) of the thigh by a surgeon at Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA to a 69yr old male patient. It was also successfully used by Dr. Alan Lumsden, a vascular surgeon at the Methodist Debakey Heart Center in Huston, Texas, USA.