Tufts Medical Center Neurosurgeons and CereVasc Co-founders Honored by the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology for Innovation in Hydrocephalus Treatment

BOSTON, Nov. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tufts Medical Center neurosurgeons Adel Malek, MD, PhD, Chief of Neurovascular Surgery, and Carl Heilman, MD, Neurosurgeon-in-Chief and Chairman of Neurosurgery, both Co-Founders of CereVasc, Inc. have been honored with the 2022 Innovation Award at the annual meeting of the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology (SVIN), for their work to bring a minimally-invasive, endovascular treatment to people with communicating hydrocephalus.

"Drs. Malek and Heilman have developed a disruptive innovation in the eShunt^® System that has the potential to meaningfully transform the way that patients with communicating hydrocephalus are treated," said Ameer Hassan, D.O., FAHA, FSVIN, President of SVIN. "SVIN and the neuroendovascular community will benefit greatly from the work they are doing," he continued.

Tufts Medicine is the parent organization of Tufts Medical Center, a world renowned 415-bed academic medical center in Boston that cares for the sickest patients in the region, includes a level one trauma center and one of the largest heart transplant centers in New England, and also serves as the principal teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine. Tufts Medicine is also the parent organization of Lowell General Hospital, MelroseWakefield Healthcare, an expansive home care and hospice network, and a large clinically integrated physician network that cares for more than one million patients per year. The health system is dedicated to providing patients with the highest quality of care as close to home as possible.

Located in Massachusetts' healthcare hub, CereVasc, Inc., is a clinical-stage, venture-funded, medical device company focused on the development of novel, minimally invasive treatments for patients with neurological diseases. Its flagship product, the eShunt System, is intended to offer the first minimally invasive treatment for communicating hydrocephalus (CH) and an improvement to the current standard of care. The eShunt device concept originated from Tufts Medical Center physicians Carl Heilman, MD, Neurosurgeon-in-Chief and Chairman of Neurosurgery, and Adel Malek, MD, PhD, Neurosurgeon and Chief of Neurovascular Surgery. The patented eShunt System includes an endovascularly implantable cerebral spinal fluid shunt and delivery components, which are designed to treat CH without invasive surgery. For additional information, please visit our website at www.cerevasc.com.

The eShunt System is an investigational device and not available for sale within or outside the United States.

Hydrocephalus is the abnormal buildup of fluid in the brain, which can place dangerous pressure on brain tissue. Without treatment, it can be fatal. Current treatment for CH typically requires an open neurosurgical procedure to place a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt (VPS), which is designed to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid from the brain and surrounding tissues. However, the number of failures amongst the over 100,000 shunt procedures performed each year in the U.S. and Western Europe remains a significant problem in treating hydrocephalus. VPS failures due to infection, over-drainage and occlusive complications can lead to additional surgeries, longer hospital stays, developmental disabilities and higher patient morbidity. The procedure itself is invasive, costly and requires post-procedure hospitalization of up to four days and strict adherence to pain management protocols.

The eShunt System is the first minimally invasive treatment for communicating hydrocephalus. It is designed to eliminate the need for a craniotomy or surgical opening into the skull, passage of a catheter through white matter of the brain, subcutaneous tunneling across the chest and abdomen for placement of a long outflow catheter into a second surgical incision in the abdomen. By contrast, a clinician places the eShunt Implant through a leg vein using X-ray guidance. The result of the minimally invasive approach brings the potential to dramatically reduce infection risk and several other common causes of failure of currently available treatments.

The eShunt System is an investigational device and not available for sale within or outside the United States.

Contacts

Tufts Medical Center
Jeremy Lechan
[email protected]

CereVasc, Inc.
DJ Cass
[email protected]

SOURCE CereVasc, Inc.