Abbott has received approval from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan to market its Absorb bioresorbable heart stent to treat coronary artery disease.
The approval was a result of the ABSORB JAPAN clinical trial of the heart stent.
Absorb is a fully dissolving stent which is composed of a naturally dissolving material similar to dissolving sutures.
The device is completely dissolved in approximately three years, after keeping the artery unclogged, thereby allowing the treated segment to heal.
Conventional metal stents are permanent implants which inhibit vessel motion for the life of the person treated.
Kyoto University Hospital director of cardiovascular medicine and ABSORB JAPAN principal investigator professor Takeshi Kimura said: "Absorb has the potential to address the unsolved challenges of managing coronary artery disease with conventional drug eluting metallic stents.
"Our research, which involved 400 patients at 38 Japanese sites, shows that this fully dissolving stent delivered comparable results to the best-in-class Abbott XIENCE metallic drug-eluting stent on clinically important measures of safety and efficacy."
