Congresses and Meetings

AANA is probably the world’s best known annual forum for all things arthroscopy. It’s being held right now in Orlando and the program looks like the usual excellent selection of guest speakers and papers.

It’s EuroPCR week, so cardiothoracic companies are timing their press announcements to coincide with the event. Californian company Elixir Medical’s fully bioabsorbable drug eluting coronary scaffold has been the subject of what looks like a very promising clinical study presented during the event.

EuroPCR is being held in Paris right now and is the European focal point for all things cardiovascular. St. Jude Medical, Inc. has chosen the event to announce CE Mark Approval and launch of its EnligHTN™ renal denervation system.

It’s EFORT time again in just over a week, so Europe’s Orthopaedic and Trauma will be pitching up to show off their new goodies.

St.Jude clearly wants to remind its audience that it’s a company at the forefront of cardiac electrophysiology, and has timed a flurry of good news press releases to coincide with Heart Rhythm 2012.

Following CE marking earlier this year, Heart Rhythm 2012 sees Sorin announce FDA approval and US launch of its new pacing, defibrillation and left ventricular leads.

ICD lead session at Heart Rhythm meeting, as reported by cardiac electrophysiologist John Mandrola, sounds like it gave the subject a thorough going-over and concluded that St.Jude’s Durata appears to significantly outperform its predecessor, while not yet having a big enough body of data behind it to convince the naysayers.

Andrew technologies claims its solution to lipoplasty avoids the need for traumatic cutting of fat, using as it does its clever liquefaction technology to selectively target fat cells.

Edwards Lifesciences is trumpeting the newly released results from a study of its Intuity Valve System, which suggests small incision surgery is fast, safe and clinically effective.

The International Medical Device Industry Compliance Conference on 9-11 May at Stockholm’s Sheraton Hotel, and European medtech industry body Eucomed has helpfully drawn the attention of industry to the event with its own succinct assessment.

More positive signs for Medtronic’s Renal Denervation System as clinical trial results suggest sustained and significant blood pressure reduction.

GI Dynamics Inc is no doubt delighted to see its product featuring at the Obesity and metabolic Disorders congress, especially as a presentation suggests its Endobarrier® device can be used a second time on the same patient without problems.

Some really informative items have been floating around this week. It’s especially noteworthy that Thoratec’s Heartmate II® Ventricular Assist Device has seen its 10,000th patient. It’s a sobering thought that many of these patients would not have had a chance without the technology.

This new CO2 Laser solution from OmniGuide is claimed to improve surgical precision, access and control.

Stenting still has a way to go if it’s to persuade the vascular community it’s a routine alternative to Carotid Endarterectomy.

Endovascular aneurysm repair looks like it can be supported in ruptured aneurysms, but other factors need to be taken into account as real-world studies from two Swiss Centres don’t harmonise.