With an innovative method of laser-drilling micro-holes in balloon catheters, MeKo now offers its customers the possibility to develop new and improved components for the treatment of stenosis (vascular constrictions). The special feature: MeKo is capable of producing perforated balloons with holes having incredibly small diameters of only 4-8 µm.

Stenosis can occur in arteries due to fat and calcium deposits within the blood vessel and is commonly treated with a stent. Recently, whenever possible and reasonable, balloons have been used more frequently to dilate the stenosis, rather than implanting a stent.

Drug-coated balloons (DCBs) deliver antiproliferative drugs to the vessel wall while dilating the stenosis to prevent cell proliferation during healing of the damaged vessel.

However, DCBs have several disadvantages: First of all, the drug adhering to the balloon has a very limited shelf life. In addition, the DCB loses some of its coating as it travels through the blood vessels to the stenosis. As a result, the final drug dose is unpredictable. Furthermore, the drug is predominantly released linearly from the folds of the balloon, resulting in an uneven drug delivery with some areas receiving more drugs than others.

To avoid these and other disadvantages of DCBs, MeKo has developed a new type of balloon catheter, micro-drilling several hundred micro-holes into the balloon called Drug Delivery Balloon (DDB). The advantages of the DDB are obvious: The balloons are only filled with drugs while being used. Until then, they have an almost unlimited shelf life and any drug won’t be released before the blood vessel is dilated.

Due to freely customizable and individual micro-hole patterns and MeKo’s highly precise manufacturing capabilities, the drug release will occur exactly as intended and uniformly throughout the entire balloon.

Very narrow manufacturing tolerances of 0.220 µm (0.0000086”) and quality control process inspecting every single hole allow a highly reproducible and therefore safe procedure.

Find out more

Ireland or the USA - it's your choice where you want to meet our experts next week. But either way, you get one thing: interesting discussions about your projects and ideas. You will also learn more about our latest medical device manufacturing capabilities.

Meet us at Medical Technology Ireland in Galway on September 20 and 21 at booth #98F. At BIOMEDevice Boston you will find us on September 19 and 20 at booth #517. We look forward to your visit!

The world’s first device to stop small abdominal aortic aneurysms progression

Sarstedt, August 08, 2023

Around five percent of the Western population suffers from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. An abdominal aortic aneurysm is defined as bulging of the main artery of the body (aorta) in the abdominal cavity. The larger the aneurysm becomes the higher the risk for rupture gets. In most cases, patients who suffer from an aneurysm rupture do not survive (up to 80 %). Despite the high incidence of the disease, there is currently no therapy available that prevents small bulges from developing or existing bulges from becoming larger – and thus increasing the risk of rupture. Approximately 90 % of abdominal aneurysms are diagnosed at an early stage when they are small and could thus be treated early on.

To close this gap and help as many patients as possible, the German start-up Angiolutions has developed an innovative device. The implant is placed during a minor, minimally invasive procedure, protecting the aneurysm from harmful biomechanical stress.

Were you unable to watch our live webinar on nickel titanium? We invite you to view the webinar video recording and slides on our website. Learn everything you need to know about manufacturing NiTi components.

www.meko.de/webinars 

MKo - Unlock the full potential of NiTi.

Are you designing nitinol implants? Then join our brand new NiTi webinar to learn everything you need to know about manufacturing them, from rapid prototyping to series production. Save a seat, either next Wednesday or Thursday: www.meko.de/webinars 

MeKo - Unlock the full potential of NiTi.

‚It’s really great to have production parts at rapid prototyping speeds, very cool.’

No better way to sum up MeKo’s prototyping services than this customer’s quote. 

Within a couple of days MeKo is able to transform an idea into a fully finished prototype. From the very first iteration on, we treat the prototype the same way as we treat serial production parts using the very same machines and process steps, making sure the prototype from the beginning is as close to a serial production part as somehow possible.

This not only provides customers right away with a good feedback of where they’re at in terms of long-term feasibility, from experience it leads to a very smooth and efficient upscaling process since there’s no further change in equipment down the road causing unwanted delays.

We are excited to be Sponsor of the 2023 DeviceTalks Boston event. You’ll find us at booth #407 from May 10-11 to learn more about our manufacturing capabilities and innovations. Claim your pass here: https://boston.devicetalks.com/.

Why does magnesium offer many advantages for resorbable implants? How do I develop an implant that releases drugs over time? And how precisely can NiTi components be manufactured today? We answer these and many more questions in our new "MedTech Materials" webinar series.

We regularly offer exciting webinars on various medtech materials. We will start on April 18 and 19 with the magnesium alloy Resoloy® developed by MeKo, followed by webinars on biopolymers, NiTi and our nickel-free alloy Vasculoy®. Each presentation will be followed by an open Q&A session with our experts.

The Resoloy® webinar on April 18 will take place from 9 to 10 a.m. CEST, UTC+2 (CST/UTC+8: 3 to 4 p.m., JST/UTC+9: 4 to 5 p.m.).

The Resoloy® webinar on April 19 will take place from 5 to 6 p.m. CEST, UTC+2 (EDT/UTC-4: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., PDT/UTC-7: 8 to 9 a.m.).

There is no charge to attend. Please register at the following site: www.meko.de/webinars

MeKo’s material stock has become an invaluable asset for our capabilities to react quickly, especially in times like these with supply chains being in distress world wide.

We are known worldwide for manufacturing implants like stents and heart valve frames at highest precision. Each one of those implants started out as a prototype at some point. Being able to assist and guide customers very early on by offering quick and high-quality prototyping services is of utmost importance for us.

Naturally, every prototype starts with some kind of raw material. That’s why MeKo over the 30 years of its existence has continuously built up a very substantial material stock, including tubing and sheets with a vast variety of alloys and dimensions. Currently more than 2,000 different materials and tube sizes are available in stock.

Find out more about our rapid prototyping services.

Sieves and filters are used in a wide range of applications. With our laser drilling capabilities you can choose from a huge variety of hole sizes and slot geometries. High precision is guaranteed, even at very high perforation speeds. Hole diameters from a few microns up to millimeters are possible as well as different materials like carbon steel, stainless steel and ceramics. 

Learn more at our Filtech booth #B37 in hall 8.

Nickel titanium is an ideal alloy for many medical components due to its superelasticity, shape memory, strength and corrosion resistance.

MeKo has been a pioneer in stent manufacturing since 1995. Today, because of our profound expertise and our technological leadership, we're one of the main suppliers for NiTi components like stents and valves worldwide.

Our high-precision laser cutting combined with a reliable shape setting process ensures perfect geometry and consistent mechanical properties for the manufacturing of your NiTi devices.

When speed is of the essence: Thanks to the 24/7 manufacturing and our rapid prototyping, orders can be processed within short time.

Find out more: www.meko.de/niti

The high-precision PolyMediX® tubes are manufactured with a new innovative process. With PolyMediX®, MeKo manufactures implants from polymer materials that are perfectly adapted to customer requirements. 

 Thanks to the gentle manufacturing process, PolyMediX^® enables the integration of drugs into the tube wall. These drugs are released over time to assist long-term treatment.

Visit our booth #320 at the BIOMEDevice Boston today and tomorrow to get more information about PolyMediX^® and our high-precision manufacturing techniques.

Precision is our Profession