MIAMI, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Cordis Corporation announced today its STEER-IT(TM) Deflecting Tip Guidewire is now available for commercial use in the United States, Canada and Europe. The innovative product will be available in other parts of the world soon.
The STEER-IT(TM) Deflecting Tip Guidewire is used in positioning catheters and other interventional devices, such as drug-eluting stents, in a patient’s coronary. It can also be used in peripheral arteries. Featuring a unique tip that can be manipulated to bend in two directions, the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire is specially designed to help physicians treat hard-to-reach blockages, including those in tortuous vessels, previously deployed stents or side branches of an artery.
“The STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire is an important advance in interventional device technology because its bidirectional deflecting tip gives physicians more control and ease-of-use than conventional guidewires,” said Maurice Buchbinder, M.D., director of interventional cardiology and co-director of the cardiac catheterization lab at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif. “By being able to actively change both the direction and angle of the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire tip, physicians can maneuver effortlessly through difficult-to-navigate arteries and treat challenging lesions.”
The STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire offers several features to facilitate the placement of interventional devices in patients. In addition to the bidirectional deflecting tip, the guidewire has a nitinol core covered with a proprietary non-stick coating sleeve to assist physicians in smoothly advancing the device through a patient’s vessels while providing adequate lateral support. Furthermore, the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire is available with a 7 millimeters (0.24 inches) deflection tip.
In a Cordis-sponsored survey of physicians who evaluated the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire, 86.4 percent preferred the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire to conventional guidewires. Additionally, evaluating physicians reported the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire provided greater maneuverability (84 percent) and control (83.8 percent) in comparison with conventional guidewires.
“The STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire is the result of a long-standing history of innovation at Cordis and an example of our commitment to developing interventional products that continue to revolutionize the treatment of cardiac and vascular diseases,” said Dennis Donohoe, M.D., Vice President, Worldwide Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, Cordis Corporation. “With the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire, physicians can now extend the benefits of minimally invasive treatments like drug-eluting stents to patients with severely blocked arteries that are difficult to reach with conventional guidewires.”
More information on the STEER-IT(TM) Guidewire can be found at http://www.Steer-It.info.
About Cordis Corporation
Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company, is a worldwide leader in developing and manufacturing interventional vascular technology. Through the company’s innovation, research and development, physicians worldwide are better able to treat the millions of patients who suffer from vascular disease.
Cordis Corporation
CONTACT: Mariela Melendez of Cordis Cardiology, Office +1-786-313-2776,Mobile +1-786-218-4084, melen10@crdus.jnj.com; or Todd Ringler of Edelman,Office +1-212-704-4572, Mobile +1-617-872-1235, todd.ringler@edelman.com