Spectranetics announces US launch of Tapas catheter at VIVA

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Spectranetics has announced the US launch of the Tapas catheter at the 2012 Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) conference (Las Vegas, USA, 9–12 October). The device is manufactured by ThermopeutiX and distributed by Spectranetics. The Tapas catheter allows treatment of long peripheral vascular segments with only one device.

The Tapas catheter is the first drug infusion system to provide a versatile solution using a single adjustable and repositionable catheter to deliver any physician-specified drug or diagnostic agent. Its dual occlusion balloon design allows for precise targeting of the treatment area, delivery and dwell time of the drug, and aspiration to minimise systemic effects.

In conjunction with the launch of Tapas, Mehdi Shishehbor, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland,USA, presented, on Tuesday 9 October, preclinical animal data on the uptake of a drug delivered intra-arterially via the Tapas Catheter in a swine model.


Rich Kovach, chief of Interventional Cardiology, Deborah Heart and Lung Center, said: “I have found the Tapas catheter to be very easy to use and the versatility is quite appealing. The adjustability of the device allows lesions from 15mm to 300mm to be treated with one device, and it can be used to treat multiple lesions within a single vessel. The device also allows the physician to choose the agent that would best serve the patient’s clinical presentation. Using a device with such versatility also provides potential for significant economic benefit over other technologies, which can only be used once in the same patient, and need to be stocked in multiple sizes.”