The Pennsylvania Postmarket Multicenter Experience With Flow Redirection Endoluminal Device

National Survey on Flow-Diverting Stents for Intracranial Aneurysms in the United States

BACKGROUND

The Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) has been the only flow-diverting device (FDD) approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. market for nearly a decade, with more FDD choices in the United States following recent FDA approval of the Flow Redirection Endoluminal Device and Surpass. We sought to explore the integration patterns of these devices into practice by U.S. neurointerventionalists.

METHODS

A 34-question electronic survey was distributed to the U.S. neurointerventional community from different backgrounds (neurosurgery, neurology, radiology) through different organizational links, focusing on technical aspects of device selection and personal preferences/experiences regarding FDD in aneurysms treatment.

RESULTS

Responses were collected from 120 neurointerventionalists across the United States; operators from a neurosurgery background constituted the majority of respondents (47.5%; 85% of dual-trained). The largest age block was early-to mid-career operators (70.8% aged 36-50 years). Most participants (78.8%) treated a range of 25-100 aneurysms/year with FDDs, with 49.2% of respondents having all the FDA-approved FDDs available in their centers (80.8% academic practice). Femoral access was used by the 67.7% of respondents, without impact of FDD-device on access-type (89.2%). PED was the most commonly used device (70.9%), with 66.7% of respondents reporting using different FDD based on case specifics. Comparing devices preferences by training backgrounds, more neurosurgical operators endorsed PED as their most commonly used device, whereas more interventional neuroradiologists/neurologists reported Surpass and Flow Redirection Endoluminal Device as their most commonly used devices.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this survey identify common themes in FDD choices among neurointerventionalists in the U.S. market, along with their integration patterns of the newly introduced devices into clinical practice.

North American multicenter experience with the Flow Redirection Endoluminal Device in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms

OBJECTIVE

Flow diverters have revolutionized the endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms. Here, the authors present the first large-scale North American multicenter experience using the Flow Redirection Endoluminal Device (FRED) in the treatment of cerebral aneurysms.

METHODS

Consecutive cerebral aneurysms treated with FRED at 7 North American centers between June 2020 and November 2021 were included. Data collected included patient demographic characteristics, aneurysm characteristics, periprocedural and long-term complications, modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores, and radiological follow-up.

RESULTS

In total, 133 aneurysms in 116 patients were treated with 123 FRED deployment procedures and included in this study. One hundred twenty-six aneurysms (94.7%) were unruptured, 117 (88.0%) saccular, and 123 (92.5%) located in anterior circulation. The mean (range) aneurysm maximal width and neck width sizes were 7.2 (1.5-42.5) mm and 4.1 (1.0-15.1) mm, respectively. Successful FRED deployment was achieved in 122 procedures (99.2%). Adjunctive coiling was used in 4 procedures (3.3%). Radiological follow-up was available for 101 aneurysms at a median duration of 7.0 months. At last follow-up, complete occlusion was observed in 55.4% of patients, residual neck in 8.9%, and filling aneurysm in 35.6%; among cases with radiological follow-up duration > 10 months, these values were 21/43 (48.8%), 3/43 (7.0%), and 19/43 (44.2%), respectively. On multivariate regression analysis, age (OR 0.93, p = 0.001) and aneurysm neck size (OR 0.83, p = 0.048) were negatively correlated with odds of complete occlusion at latest follow-up. The retreatment rate was 6/124 (4.8%). The overall complication rate was 31/116 (26.7%). Parent vessel occlusion, covered branch occlusion, and in-stent stenosis were detected in 9/99 (9.1%), 6/63 (9.5%), and 15/99 (15.2%) cases, respectively. The FRED-related, symptomatic, thromboembolic, and hemorrhagic complication rates were 22.4%, 12.9%, 6.9%, and 0.9% respectively. The morbidity rate was 10/116 patients (8.6%). There was 1 death due to massive periprocedural internal carotid artery stroke, and 3.6% of the patients had an mRS score > 2 at the last follow-up (vs 0.9% at baseline).

CONCLUSIONS

As the first large-scale North American multicenter FRED experience, this study confirmed the ease of successful FRED deployment but suggested lower efficacy and a higher rate of complications than reported by previous European and South American studies on FRED and other flow-diverting devices. The authors recommend judicious use of this device until future studies can better elucidate the long-term outcomes of FRED treatment.