New thermoreversible liquid embolic agent for embolotherapy: technical report

To evaluate potential feasibility of new liquid embolic agent, thermoreversible gelation polymer (TGP), for embolotherapy. TGP is a liquid polymer that was originally developed as a cell culture medium for tissue engineering. TGP becomes liquid at temperatures lower than the sol-gel transition temperature (TT) and becomes a gel at temperatures higher than the TT. The TT can be adjusted from 10 C to 40 C, allowing gelation at body temperature without solvent. The renal arteries in six swine were embolized with TGP. Angiographic evaluations were obtained 0, 3 h, and 14 days after embolization. The animals were sacrificed at day 14 after angiogram. All renal arteries were successfully embolized with TGP using cooling catheter. No acute and chronic clinical complication was observed. Follow-up angiogram demonstrated complete or near complete occlusion of renal arteries. No untoward inflammatory response was observed in acute and chronic specimen. This embolic material has potential feasibility to be used in the treatment of cerebral arteriovenous malformations, aneurysms, or hyper vascular tumors. (orig.)