Drug-Eluting Balloons Is a Type of Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty Catheter That Is Used To Treat Atherosclerosis in Arteries, Which Are Located Below the Knee

The use of drug-eluting balloons significantly reduces the need for expensive and extensive tissue puncture surgeries, thereby eliminating the need for catheterizations for several anticoagulant drugs and other blood monitoring procedures. Despite their many advantages, drug-eluting balloons possess several disadvantages that make them less than ideal for many applications. Long-term drug administration of anticoagulants is required as skin penetration into the vessel wall is delayed and drug concentration in the blood is lowered considerably. Despite their efficacy, drug-eluting balloons possess several shortcomings that limit their suitability for certain diseases and target different regions of the body, rather than the whole cardiovascular system.

The surgical method is performed using a standardized air compressor called a Biorespitory Pressure Inflatable Valve. An inflatable cylinder (filled with drugs) is inserted into a ventricle through a small hole made in the diaphragm. A Biorespitory Pressure Inflatable Valve (BPITV) is located above the Biorespitory Purification Diaphragm and inflates both the cylinder and the ventricle simultaneously.


This innovative procedure is described in an article published on the website of the American Association for Clinical Cardiovascular Research, which is part of the Cardiovascular Health System Research Project. The article details the first results of a multicenter randomized trial comparing the effects of a new injectable agent with the existing BPITV. Both the injectable agent and the BPITV had similar peripheral artery occlusion outcomes when patients were randomly assigned.


The multicenter randomized trial showed no significant difference between the treatments. The researchers explain that their data are incomplete due to some missing data. They conclude that the benefits of the two procedures may depend on whether the patients undergo treatment for longer periods. In the long-term clinical outcomes, there was no difference between the treatments. However, the investigators recommend that further long-term clinical outcomes studies be conducted on the combined procedures to determine whether there is any benefit associated with the combined procedures in reducing the risk of heart attack, myocardial infarction, or stroke.