Merit Medical has announced the official market launch of its Arcadia steerable and straight balloons for vertebral augmentation. These balloons are designed to help physicians achieve controlled, precise cavity creation during unipedicular or bipedicular vertebral augmentation procedures, the company state.
The Arcadia steerable balloon provides a bipedicular footprint through a unipedicular approach for increased control of balloon placement and cement delivery when treating vertebral compression fractures. The Arcadia steerable balloon’s design has the potential to reduce procedural and fluoroscopy times and lower costs associated with additional incisions, according to a Merit press release. The Arcadia straight balloon is designed for simplified cavity creation when treating vertebral compression fractures via a standard bipedicular approach.
“The Arcadia steerable balloon offers highly accurate balloon placement through a unilateral approach, as well as a balloon with enough size and durability to reduce prominent fractures and optimise cement fill,” explains Douglas P Beall, (Clinical Radiology of Oklahoma, USA). “This system has the capability to offer bilateral results with a unilateral approach.” Beall consulted with Merit Medical as part of its development and early evaluation teams for the Arcadia steerable balloon.
Pitching the positive design features of the device, Merit Medical claim that the pre-inflation length of both product offerings—five sizes ranging from 10mm to 30mm—accommodates diverse anatomies while providing reduced compliancy and increased balloon volumes. The company also state that the size range combined with steerability enables the ability to straddle the centre midline of the vertebral body, providing a balanced inflation footprint between endplates. A high-pressure rating of 700psi helps to form even cavity creation in varying vertebral body anatomies.
