FED: Aust-made device could make heart surgery less traumatic

AAP General News (Australia)
04-02-2009
FED: Aust-made device could make heart surgery less traumatic

By David Barbeler

BRISBANE, April 2 AAP - Open heart surgery could become a thing of the past for some
patients thanks to a device being made at a new state-of-the-art facility in Brisbane.

Cook Medical, one of the largest private medical research and device manufacturing
companies in the world, on Thursday opened its $21 million headquarters at Brisbane Technology
Park in Eight Mile Plains, south of Brisbane.

Managing director Gus Taddeo said the facility's core product was a device named a
zenith endovascular stent graft, which he hoped would next year get US Food and Drug Administration
approval.

Mr Taddeo said the stent prevented the need for open heart surgery for aortas that
had developed an aneurysm, as it ran up an artery starting at the patient's groin.

This meant that patients only required a light anaesthetic during surgery, he said.

"So the way this product is done, we compress it down to a pencil diameter tube and
insert it up through an artery near the groin," Mr Taddeo said.

"A decade ago, when they did open heart surgery they literally split you.

"This saves the patient from undergoing a traumatic surgical procedure."

The product, which was developed in collaboration with the Royal Perth Hospital, is
currently under review at the US Food and Drug Administration.

Mr Taddeo said he hoped to gain approval for the product by mid-2010, before exporting
it overseas.

"At least 90 per cent will be exported," he said.

"That will mean a bigger market open to us. If that happens, we will employ another
50 people, taking us to about 250 staff.

"This will allow us to really add to our business, which comprises of several sections
including research and development."

AAP djb/pjo/srp/de

KEYWORD: HEART

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.