Castlewood Surgical, Inc. is a privately held Massachusetts-based medical device company aimed at improving the care of patients with cardiovascular disease. Their main technology is called the CycloneTM System, which allows a surgeon to eliminate the aortic side-biting clamp traditionally used in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
CABG is the most common type of heart surgery in America and consists of taking a healthy artery or vein from elsewhere in the body and connecting (or grafting) this blood vessel to the damaged coronary artery. This surgery is commonly referred to as “bypass surgery” and allows for a new route for oxygen-rich blood to reach the heart muscle. More than 500,000 of these surgeries take place in the U.S. each year.
The main benefit of the Cyclone technology is that it allows surgeon to use their own suturing technique without introducing foreign (metal) material during proximal anastomosis (the actual grafting of the bypass).
Instead of using a metal cross-clamp or side-biting clamp, the surgeon can position the vein or artery graft on the Cyclone for measurement. Next, the HeliguardTM Coil is positioned on the end of the Cyclone device and the appropriate HeliCoreTM Aortic Cutter is selected depending on the size of the bypass graft. The Aortic Cutter is then used to create a circular shaped hole in the aorta. Next, the surgeon inserts the Cyclone into the hole and removes the Coil. The surgeon can then use their standard suturing technique to complete the anastomosis.
Patients benefit from the Cyclone technology because there is no metal left in the patient. The surgeon benefits because he/she experiences minimal changes to his/her CABG procedure.
The high level benefits of the Cyclone tissue holder for CABG procedures include:
- No aortic side-biting clamp
- No metal is left in the patient at all
- Supports hand-sewn (the gold standard) anastomoses (connections)
- No vein “cuff” is created
- The interior aortic surface is protected
- Supports multiple anastomosis with a single device
- Supports angled anastomoses
- Vein or artery bypass grafts may be used
- Distal or proximal anastomosis can be created first
To learn more about Castlewood Surgical’s Cylcone technology and to see a demonstration, please visit www.castlewoodsurgical.com. Castlewood Surgical will also be presenting its products and technologies at OneMedForum SF 2012, on January 9 – 12.