Bentley has launched BeGraft Plus, a covered balloon expandable stent indicated for restoring and improving the patency and treatment of aneurysms, acute perforations and ruptures of the iliac and renal arteries in the European markets.
Eric Verhoeven (Nuremberg, Germany) officially launched the stent on 31 January at the Leipzig Interventional Course (LINC) 2018 (30 January–2 February, Leipzig, Germany).
BeGraft Plus stent system and BeGraft peripheral stent system are indicated for the same conditions, however, BeGraft Plus has exclusive stent properties that make it more suitable for complex and demanding endovascular lesions and/or vascular defects – notably its high radial force and remarkable flexibility, a press release from the company states. These features are associated with reliable sealing properties.
“With BeGraft Plus, we see a new generation of covered stents that offer us new options for the treatment of aneurysm disease,” said Eric Verhoeven, Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, General Hospital Nuremberg and Paracelsus Medical University.
Stéphan Haulon, Hôpital Marie Lannelongue, Paris, France, is another early adopter of this product. “Recently, we have used a lot of different stents in our daily work, but the BeGraft Plus is really a different story because it has the highest radial force we have seen so far for covered stents yet remains very flexible, which makes it easy to use in the most complex procedures and complicated lesions,” he remarked.
Novel wall construction
One size of stent does not fit all, and explaining a key development with BeGraft Plus, Verhoeven pointed out that “BeGraft Plus has a sandwich layer in the wall construction, which makes it more suitable for the treatment of complex aneurysmal disease.” The different unique layers of BeGraft Plus comprise an outer and inner stent with an outer layer and an intermediate layer of ePTFE tubing, which ensures reliable sealing properties.
The BeGraft Plus has up to 3.5 times higher circumferential radial force compared to other balloon expandable covered stents in the market, notes the release. “The high radial force ensures a secure connection to the nitinol rings of branched endografts and strong performance in complex lesions,” said Haulon.
After CE mark-approval in February 2017, distribution began at selected European centres but the BeGraft Plus is now available across Europe in lengths such as 27/28mm, 37/38mm and 57/58mm and diameters from 5–10mm. The BeGraft Plus is 7F compatible up to a diameter of 8mm and 8F for diameters of 9 and 10mm. This is one french larger compared to the regular peripheral BeGraft. To date, over 350 patients have been successfully treated with BeGraft Plus in a small selected group of hospitals.
