Advantages of Laser Micromachining for Balloons and Catheters

Drug-eluting balloon (DEB) and drug delivery catheter (DDC) based treatments are increasingly being offered and used for the treatment of coronary, peripheral, neurovascular, and ENT applications. European markets have already seen a larger acceptance of these therapy choices ahead of the US markets. However, large randomized studies are underway in various stages of data collection to clearly quantify the advantages of balloon catheters over drug eluting stents, longstanding procedures like percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, surgical interventions (e.g., atherectomy or grafts), and drug therapy-like tissue plasminogen activator.