ESTECH Begins Totally Closed-Chest Cardiac Surgery Procedures Using Patented Remote Access Perfusion Catheter Technology.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

DANVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 21, 2001

ESTECH, Inc. announced that in January 2001, in an effort to provide patients with the benefits of least invasive cardiac surgery, surgeon Gerhard Wimmer-Greinecker, M.D., Ph.D., used the ESTECH Remote Access Perfusion (RAP) Cannula during heart surgery which was performed endoscopically. Dr. Wimmer-Greinecker performed the procedures using a surgical robot ("DaVinci", Intuitive Surgical) avoiding the necessity to open the patient's chest.

To date, two additional bypass procedures have been executed using the RAP Cannula by Dr. Wimmer-Greinecker and Anton Moritz, M.D., Ph.D., at the University Hospital of Frankfurt in Germany. Dr. Wimmer-Greinecker stated, "The ESTECH RAP Cannula is critical enabling technology allowing surgeons to safely and effectively perform cardiac surgery through the smallest incisions possible, while giving patients the highest quality results. We want our patients to benefit from a procedure that is least invasive and will provide a long lasting result."

During conventional heart surgery, the patient's heart is stopped while the blood circulation is supported by a heart lung machine. The patient's chest is opened to obtain access to the heart and its main vessels. Via the insertion of cannulas, tubes are connected to the great vessels near the heart, and the patient's circulation is connected to the heart lung machine.

By using a surgical robot, access to the heart can be achieved endoscopically (viewed by the surgeon on a 3-D video monitor). Both the endoscope and the surgical instruments can be controlled by the surgeon from a robot control console, which increases the precision of movements and enables improved results. Importantly, the surgeon can perform heart surgery without opening the patient's chest, resulting in reduced hospitalization time and postoperative pain.

The ESTECH RAP Cannula is specially designed to enable extracorporeal circulation without the need to have direct access to the heart's great vessels. The RAP Cannula is inserted in the femoral artery at the groin, and guided into position placing its tip in the ascending aorta, close to the heart. Instead of mechanically clamping the aorta to block blood flow to the heart during the procedure, as in conventional procedures where the chest is opened, the ESTECH RAP Cannula clamps the aorta through the remote inflation of a non-traumatic intra-aortic occlusion balloon.

Furthermore, the RAP Cannula provides antegrade arterial blood flow to support the patient's blood circulation, drug delivery to the coronary arteries to stop the heart and heart venting to aspirate blood that may enter the heart as a result of the surgical procedure. By controlling all of these important parameters from the patient's groin, the thorax remains completely free and easily accessible by the surgical robot arms and its instruments.

The surgeries on Dr. Wimmer-Greinecker's first two patients, a 49-year-old female and a 77-year-old male, were successful. No complications were reported and the patients were dismissed from the hospital in good condition.

At the recent "Cardiothoracic Techniques and Technologies" meeting in New Orleans, attended by 650 surgeons, Professor Guido Van Nooten, M.D., Ph.D., presented a Multicenter Trial showing that the RAP Cannula was used safely on 63 patients without strokes versus a typical stroke rate of 5% for conventional procedures. Professor Van Nooten remarked, "The ESTECH RAP Cannula has demonstrated the potential to avoid some of the most serious complications related to cardiac surgery. This is attributed to the design of the device which delivers gentle low velocity, antegrade blood flow, and a very stable balloon occlusion of the aorta."

ESTECH CEO Art Bertolero commented, "This is one more step towards our goal of providing patients with the least invasive cardiac surgery. ESTECH's patented RAP Cannula technology has demonstrated that it may reduce the complications associated with cardiac surgery, including stroke, while enabling new techniques such as robotic surgery."

About ESTECH

ESTECH, Inc. is a privately held company with headquarters in Danville, California, offering a complete system of products for "Least Invasive Cardiac Surgery"(R) (LICS) for both beating heart and stopped heart approaches. The company began marketing the RAP Cannula in late 2000. The company's beating heart products have been used in more than 20,000 procedures. Information on ESTECH is available on the Web -- www.estechlics.com.

ESTECH, Inc. and "Least Invasive Surgery" are trademarks of Endoscopic Technologies, Inc.