The most common cause of disability in the elderly is stroke, although modern stroke treatment already recommends the combination of intravenous (IV) lysis and mechanical thrombectomy (MT) as the gold standard for the treatment of acute ischemic strokes in cases of occlusion of large vessels. MT is a procedure in which the thrombus is removed from the body via an access in the groin using several catheters and a so-called stent retriever.

Even though MT in combination with IV lysis shows high recanalization rates, there are some limitations to this procedure. A significant limitation of MT is the loss and associated migration of the thrombus during retraction of a stent retriever. This can be caused by the thrombus being stripped off the catheter wall of the distal access catheter (DAC) during retraction. So far, there are only DACs on the market that are cylindrical in shape and do not completely fill the vessel diameter of the blocked vessel. The aim of this project is to develop a new neurovascular device that prevents stripping or loss of the thrombus at the catheter wall. This 
will improve the so-called "first-pass recanalization rate," which is directly related to the clinical outcome after the procedure and the associated rate of permanent neurological damage.

The new device is funnel-shaped at the distal end and has its own deployment force, allowing it to adapt to different vessel diameters and thus fill the entire vessel volume. This minimizes or prevents the thrombus trapped in the stent retriever from being stripped off the catheter wall. During in-vitro and in-vivo tests on a silicone model as well as in pigs, a significant improvement in the first-pass recanalization rate was achieved. We expect that the new device could significantly reduce the rate of permanent damage after a stroke.