FDA OKs new treatment for large brain aneurysms

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new treatment system manufactured by Neurovasx Inc. for large brain aneurysms.

Maple Grove-based Neurovasx's cPAX Aneurysm Treatment System is for surgery on brain aneurysms that are difficult to manage because of their size and shape.

An aneurysm is a bulge in the wall of a blood vessel, which can rupture as it increases in size, causing hemorrhage or death. Brain aneurysms often produce no symptoms until they grow and press on nerves in the brain, or until they begin to leak blood or rupture.

Aneurysms larger than 10millimeters are difficult to treat with clipping or coiling. The cPAX Aneurysm Treatment System is indicated for use in those brain aneurysms.

“Like coiling, the cPAX Aneurysm Treatment System is a form of endovascular repair,” said Christy Foreman, director of the Office of Device Evaluation in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “But instead of tiny metallic coils, it uses a special polymer material to fill the space within the aneurysm.”

The cPAX Aneurysm Treatment System was approved on April 1, 2011, under a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE). The HDE makes medical devices available to patients with rare medical conditions that affect fewer than 4,000 people a year. The approval for this HDE was based on safety data from two studies of 43 subjects.

According to the FDA, the cPAX device system is indicated for use in adults ages 22 and older and should not be used in patients with an active infection or in those in whom anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy is contraindicated.