Supersaturated Oxygen Therapy Cleared In EU To Treat Widowmaker Heart Attacks

ZOLL Medical, a part of the Asahi Kasei Group, won EU clearance for its SuperSaturated Oxygen (SSO2) Therapy System to be used to minimize the damage that heart attacks cause within heart muscle.

Approved about a year ago in the United States, SSO2 is the only option beyond percutaneous coronary intervention (stenting) that can help stricken patients recover with improved outcomes.

These days, heart attacks are usually treated by placing stents at the sites of narrowing coronary arteries. This has become a standard of care and interventional cardiologists can accurately place stents within minutes. Although blood flow is restored, affected parts of the heart continue to be starved of oxygen. SuperSaturated Oxygen allows interventional cardiologists to push hyperbaric levels of oxygen straight to oxygen-deprived myocardium right after placing a stent. This helps damaged tissue to recover, leading to reduced permanent complications.



Specifically, SSO2 is indicated for “widowmaker” heart attacks, left anterior descending ST-elevation myocardial infarction (LAD STEMI), which are treated within six hours of the start of symptoms.

“I am very happy to know that ZOLL received CE Mark approval for the TherOx® System” said Antonio L. Bartorelli, MD, Interventional Cardiology Director at Centro Cardiologico Monzino, University of Milan, in a press release. “We were among the first in Europe to observe the beneficial impact of SSO2 Therapy on left ventricular recovery after primary coronary intervention in patients with LAD ST-elevation myocardial infarction and we look forward to being able to use this effective treatment again in our patients.”

Here’s an animation explaining SuperSaturated Oxygen Therapy:

Source