On Wednesday, Royal Philips launched its VesselNavigator, which is designed to be used with Philips’ interventional X-ray systems. This is Philips' latest innovation in live 3-D catheter navigation for the minimally-invasive treatment of vascular diseases.

During an endovascular procedure, image guidance is used to steer a catheter through major arteries or veins in order to locally place and deploy implants including stents. VesselNavigator can be used for all endovascular procedures, especially for the treatment of aortic aneurysms.

Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair is a very challenging procedure since it’s difficult to use conventional X-ray imaging to place the stent in the precise orientation. Because of that, it’s a longer procedure and requires more contrast medium.

The VesselNavigator works by combining the live interventional X-ray images with the pre-acquired 3-D MRI or CT images of the patient’s vascular structures. It generates 3-D color-coded images of the vessels that make it easier for the surgeon to move through the vascular network without the need for X-ray visualization and additional contrast medium.

Recent studies demonstrated that VesselNavigator can reduce the use of contrast medium by 70 percent and procedure times by 18 percent. Now patients who previously were unable to benefit from minimally invasive treatments will have access to this treatment option.

VessekNavigator is the new addition to Philips’ 3-D image-guided navigation portfolio for minimally invasive therapies. The portfolio also includes HeartNavigator and EchoNavigator for structural heart repairs, EP Navigator for cardiac electrophysiology interventions and EmboGuide for tumor embolization during cancer treatment.

VesselNavigator was developed along with the University Hospital Cologne in Germany and the University Hospital Ghent in Belgium. It is not available for sale in the U.S. and is pending 510(k) clearance.

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