Developed with the participation of the Ulyanovsk surgeon kava filter began to install patients

The development, over which the endovascular surgeon of the Ulyanovsk Regional Clinical Hospital Leonid Glushchenko worked for several years, has reached the application in patients. Biodegradable kava filter is able to delay dangerous fragments of blood clots, and after completing its task, gradually dissolve in the body.

Conventional kava filters are installed in the inferior vena cava to prevent thromboembolism. The metal structure becomes a kind of barrier: it traps fragments of blood clots and prevents them from entering the pulmonary arteries. However, later such a device may require removal, which means that the patient has to undergo another intervention.

Russian experts decided to change the very principle of the filter. Instead of a permanent metal structure, they developed a device made of biodegradable material. After completion of the protective function, it should gradually dissolve.

One of the project participants was Ulyanovsk endovascular surgeon Leonid Glushchenko. For several years, he combined his work with patients to research and develop a new technology. A team of specialists from different Russian regions worked on the device, and the project was presented in the ecosystem of the Skolkovo Innovation Center.

Before use in humans, the technology has passed the stage of preclinical research. The structure and its behavior in the body were studied experimentally, including in pigs. Some of the studies were conducted in Shanghai.

Now the project has reached the next level. Biodegradable kava filters began to be installed in patients, and Leonid Glushchenko participates in such procedures in the hospital of the Medical Center of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The doctor calls the current stage the result of many years of work of a large team and expects that over time the technology will be available to patients in other countries.

Leonid Glushchenko represents the medical dynasty in the third generation and continues to work as an endovascular surgeon of the Ulyanovsk Regional Clinical Hospital.