Cooper physicians get $100K grant to develop device for cardiac catheterizations

Cooper University Health Care’s Center for Innovation has received a $100,000 grant from the Foundation for Health Advancement to develop a new medical device that will aid physicians performing cardiac catheterizations and related procedures for greater efficiency, ultimately leading to better patient care.

The antegrade femoral artery entry device and sheath was invented and developed by vascular and endovascular surgeons Dr. Jeffrey Carpenter, chairman and chief of the Department of Surgery at Cooper, and Dr. Katherine McMackin, director of vascular surgical research at Cooper. The device will help physicians overcome challenges accessing the femoral artery, the main blood vessel supplying blood to the lower body, which is used as the path to the heart during these types of procedures.

During catheterizations, the medical team typically guides wires, catheters, balloons and stents to the heart through the femoral artery beginning in the upper thigh and moving up into the patient’s heart.

“Body structure can vary greatly from patient to patient, and the abdominal wall can often create difficulties when the medical team is trying to guide numerous medical instruments through the femoral artery space,” Carpenter explained. “Depending on the patient’s abdominal structure, the team may not be able to complete these steps, resulting in the patient bleeding or the inability to complete the procedure altogether.”

Carpenter and McMackin designed a sheath and delivery system that enables the insertion of multiple wires and instruments in opposing directions through a single port of entry to overcome any challenges with the patient’s abdominal structure, thus giving clinicians more options and greater flexibility to complete the procedure successfully. In addition to improving ergonomics and function, the device’s design may also help reduce the risk of infection during the procedure.

“Currently, more than a million cardiac catheterizations and angiographic procedures are done every year in the United States,” McMackin said. “We anticipate that this new device will potentially have widespread use and positively impact patient outcomes.”

“Physicians have long expressed the need for improved devices and methods to aid in these types of procedures,” Carpenter added. “We are hopeful that this device will provide those new options.”

The grant funding will be used for the development and testing of several prototype devices.

“Drs. Carpenter and McMackin have shown relentless commitment and passion toward creating a device to improve patient outcomes during endovascular interventions,” Dr. George Heinrich, vice chair and CEO of New Jersey Health Foundation, said. “We are excited to support the development of the prototype through the innovation grant and the team is hopeful to bring a new bidirectional sheath to the operating table.”