Penza, 11 December 2015. PenzaNews. The pre-clinical research and test center of the Penza technopark “Rameev” has held the first experimental operation to implant a coronary stent developed together with “MedInzh” in a pig’s aorta on Friday, December 11.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

A 100-kg male pig, seven months old, grew in one of the animal husbandry farms of the Penza area; he was pre-selected for the operation in the infancy, and fed under a dedicated diet.

The male pig underwent a full set of required medical tests immediately before the operation.

After the surgery, the animal will spend around 10 days in the technopark for a rehabilitation course, and then will return to the farm.

Researchers will be closely monitoring the animal for a year.

This is the first of a series of experiments with coronary stent graft implantation. If they succeed, such stints will be available for human surgeries in 12-18 months.

“The manipulation on this pig are on the same level as a human operation. I believe the results we will receive can become a new step for our practicing hospitals,” Irina Yefimova, head of the pre-clinical research center, told the press.

The male pig will be able to feed and drink water on his own in a day.

“His exterior will begin restoring to normal in 2-3 days, and we will be removing the sutures on the seventh day. The animal will return to its normal life in no more than 2-2.5 weeks,” Irina Yefimova explained.

In turn, Alexander Yevdokimov, director of “MedIntell,” pointed out that the stent graft is a joint product of several enterprises from the Penza region biomedical cluster.

“The leading company behind the project is ‘MedInzh.’ ‘NanoMed’ directs the development and production of items for endovascular surgery and minimal-invasive tools, while ‘MedIntell’ is the company responsible for development, and equipment for ‘MedInzh’ and the biomedical cluster,” he clarified.

The development of stent graft began in 2012, and by now the project has passed all technical test and was cleared for clinical experiments.

“We are now holding animal tests to be assured of its high quality and effectiveness when it gets a registration certificate and people begin receiving them as implants,” he said.

According to Alexander Yevdokimov, first tests revealed certain shortcomings that were later corrected.

“There always were certain issues, surgeons supplied us with certain critique on convenience of implanting them. Obviously, since we are working in such close cooperation with them, we seek to eliminate all shortcomings, make the product better, more convenient, reliable, safe,” he stressed.

The federal biomedical cluster key partner cooperation expert to the director of “Skolkovo” Evgeny Tkachenko monitored the operation.

He highly praised the product of biomedical cluster enterprises.

“We are in great demand for high-quality pre-clinical research services for the Russian innovation industry in the medical field. Today, I have seen that there are new centers appearing in Russia where we can conduct tests and approbations of technologies developed in ‘Skolkovo.’ In addition, I can tell you that we are holding talks with ‘MedInzh’ to support the company’s ongoing research projects,” Evgeny Tkachenko said.