Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS)

Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS)

The new Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS), a non metallic mesh tube that is used to treat a narrowed artery, is similar to a stent, but slowly dissolves once the blocked artery can function naturally again and stays open on its own. Similar to a small mesh tube, BVS is designed to help open up a blocked artery in the heart and restore blood flow to the heart muscle. BVS gradually dissolves once the artery can stay open on its own, potentially allowing the blood vessel to function naturally again.

Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold is similar in appearance to a stent, but is a non-metallic, non-permanent, mesh implant which gets absorbed gradually, dissolves over time and allows the artery to function naturally again, similar to the way a cast supports a broken arm and is then removed. This new scaffold disappears over 12-24 months and supports the vessel until it has the ability and strength to stay open on its own.

BVS is made of a material commonly used in other medical devices, such as dissolving stitches. This material allows the BVS to break down into elements already found in your body like water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), enabling the artery to return to a more natural state.

BVS is the latest advance in treating Coronary Artery Disease.

Being treated with BVS means, you do not have a permanent implant which allows your artery to resume a more natural function. BVS may benefit you in the following ways.

• Eliminates the concern about receiving a permanent implant.
• Enables you to resume your everyday activities
• May positively impact your long-term heart health
• Helps to reduce your chance of future Coronary artery disease symptoms

Powerful blood thinners need not be given for a long time, and as the stent disappears, the normal vasomotor function (normal contraction and relaxation of the blood vessel) is restored. The vessel is brought back again to normal. It also helps in creating a normal vessel and if needed bypass grafts can be placed in that area in the future. Having an artery free of a permanent implant may mean more choices are available to find the best treatment in future if needed.

This technique is considered as the 4th revolution in Interventional Cardiology after the introduction of metallic drug eluting stents. The new BVS technique is everolimus-eluting and provides transient vessel support with drug-delivery capability, without the long-term limitations of the metal, presently in drug-eluting stents. This novel technology also overcomes many safety concerns associated with metal stent and possibly also has more clinical benefits.

This Procedure is performed at Apollo Hospitals making it one of the of the first to implant the commercially available BVS in India.