Purpose: The purpose was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Serranator percutaneous transluminal angioplasty serration balloon catheter in patients with infrapopliteal peripheral artery disease.
Materials and methods: A prospective, multicenter, single-arm feasibility study in 46 patients with claudication or chronic limb-threatening ischemia, Rutherford Clinical Category (RCC) 3 to 5, that required treatment of the infrapopliteal arteries above the tibiotalar joint. The primary efficacy outcome was device success-successful insertion, balloon inflation and deflation, and removal of the device(s) with a final diameter stenosis of <50%. The primary safety endpoint was a composite of major adverse limb events (MALE) and perioperative death (POD) through 30 day postprocedure. Other outcomes were change in RCC and ankle-brachial index, wound healing, and clinically-driven target lesion revascularization (CD-TLR). A subset of 9 patients were further evaluated by optical coherence tomography (OCT) or intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) for the presence of serrations in treated lesions. Patient follow-up occurred at 30 days and 6 months.
Results: Forty-six patients received treatment with the Serranator device and 55 lesions were treated. Fifty-three lesions were deemed analyzable by the core lab with data and reported hereafter. Device success was 91.7% and freedom from MALE + POD through 30 days was 95.7%. Pretreatment stenosis of 82% was reduced to 21.8% and only 1 lesion (1.9%) required a bailout stent for a grade D dissection. The average maximum balloon inflation pressure was 6 atmospheres. Serrations were present in all treated lesions (n=10) in 9 patients imaged with OCT/IVUS as reviewed by the core laboratory. The RCC score improved by 1 or more level in 70% of patients at 6 months with 42% having a score of 0. The 6 month freedom from CD-TLR was 97.7%.
Conclusion: Serranator treatment of infrapopliteal lesions showed excellent lumen gain with minimal evidence of arterial injury and low 6 month CD-TLR. Imaging by IVUS and OCT showed serrations without significant dissection, supporting the device's proposed mechanism of action.
Keywords: angioplasty; balloon catheter; infrapopliteal segment; scoring balloon; serrations.