PURPOSE: To assess and compare intimal and medial vascular damage caused by
three mechanical wall-contact thrombectomy devices: fogarty embolectomy ca
theter, Arrow-Trerotola peripheral thrombectomy device, and MTI-Castaneda o
ver-the-wire brush.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bilateral external iliac arteries of 15 canines were
thrombosed before mechanical thrombolysis. Ten thrombosed arteries were ra
ndomly assigned to receive each device. Animals were sacrificed immediately
and histologic assessment of endothelial and medial damage in the vessels
was performed.
RESULTS: The vascular damage found with ail devices extended into the tunic
a media. The Fogarty embolectomy catheter and the Arrow-Trerotola device ca
used significantly more damage than the Castaneda brush.
CONCLUSION: All devices caused lesions extending into the media. previous r
esearch has shown that the extent and depth of the vascular lesion may be c
ontributing factors in promoting early atherosclerotic and accelerated hype
rplastic intimal and medial changes. These findings warrant further study o
f these devices in an atherosclerotic model with longer follow-up.