Novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector Gertrude Stein is famous for the quote, “America is my country and Paris is my hometown.” Well, that’s exactly how we felt this spring with the warm reception IVL received at EuroPCR 2019.
It was an exciting time for Shockwave. Not just because there were over 45 independent, physician-driven IVL presentations at the meeting. Or the fact that the meeting was the one-year anniversary of the commercial introduction for coronary Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL). Or the fact that we did our first hands-on coronary training as part of our education partnership with Abiomed. But more so that the meeting was where we unveiled our inaugural TopShock case contest, by far the most engaging physician education program we’ve executed to date.
It all started with a novel idea as we began to prepare of EuroPCR. For our first ever coronary symposium that we were planning, rather than the company decide which IVL cases would be presented, we thought, “what if we let our customers choose what they would want to see?” In a mere handful of weeks prior to the EU meeting, we invited our customers across the globe to submit their best IVL cases as part of a contest to see which would be voted by IVL expert physicians as the best IVL cases over the last 12 months, and these would be these cases presented during the symposium.
We thought we would get a few handfuls of cases that we quickly could review, but we ended up receiving nearly 70 cases that took days, not hours, to review in detail to determine the scientific merit and educational value of each case. An honorable judging panel of Profs. Jean Fajadet, Carlo Di Mario, Jonathan Hill and Javier Escaned reviewed the submitted cases and selected three case finalists that best conveyed the clinical utility, benefits and best practices of the technology.
During the May 21st EuroPCR symposium moderated by Drs. Evald Christensen and James Spratt, the standing room-only audience was presented with three equally compelling cases:
- “Complex PCI of severely calcified left coronary artery in patient disqualified from surgery” – Dr. Slawomir Dobrzycki, Department of Invasive Cardiology University Hospital in Bialystok, Poland
- “Coronary IVL for treatment of heavy calcified ostial lesions: an emblematic case” – Dr. Etienne Couture, Institut Cardiovasculaire Paris-Sud, in Massy, France
- “Rotatripsy: combination of RA and IVL for the treatment of severely calcified lesions” – Dr. Ariana Gonzalvez, La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, Spain (on behalf of Dr. Alfonso Jurado Román)
In the end, the audience in attendance voted the TopShock winner to be the novel case from Spain that featured the complementary approach to calcium modification using both rotational atherectomy and IVL. Recently, TopShock Judge Javier Escaned spoke with the winning operator, Dr. Jurado Román, on camera to review his winning “Rotatripsy” case and his key takeaways: https://www.radcliffecardiology.com/TOPSHOCK-ROTATRIPSY-Javier-Escaned-Alfonso-Rom%C3%A1n
The winning case was also recently published in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions (http://interventions.onlinejacc.org/content/12/15/e127; Volume 12, Issue 15, August 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcin.2019.03.036).
A big merci beaucoup goes out to all who submitted cases for the contest and those who made it into the success it was. Congrats again to Dr. Jurado Román on his excellent case and be sure keep an eye out for the next TopShock competition in September at TCT!
Important Safety Information
Caution: In the United States, Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL catheters are investigational devices, limited by United States law to investigational use. DISRUPT CAD III Study
Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL catheters are commercially available in certain countries outside the U.S. Please contact your local Shockwave representative for specific country availability. The Shockwave C2 Coronary IVL catheters are indicated for lithotripsy-enhanced, low-pressure balloon dilatation of calcified, stenotic de novo coronary arteries prior to stenting. For the full IFU containing important safety information please visit: https://shockwavemedical.com/clinicians/international/coronary/shockwave-c2/
