Shockwave Medical

Shockwave Medical is a medical device company focused on developing and commercializing products intended to offer new ways to treat calcified cardiovascular disease. The company's intravascular lithotripsy technology is used in the treatment of calcified plaque. Shockwave Medical's intravascular lithotripsy family of catheters are developed to deliver localized lithotripsy at the site of cardiovascular calcium, based on technology developed to treat kidney stones.

Shockwave Medical's technology is developed to address calcium in cardiovascular disease, which the company suggests have not been well treated in the past. This includes solutions that are limited by being unable to dilate, such as high pressure balloons that are not able to reliably dilate vessels containing rigid and severe calcium buildup, or technologies such as atherectomy, which can treat intimal calcium and sometimes medial calcium buildup but cannot necessarily treat deeper calcium buildups that can potentially impact procedural outcomes.

Shockwave Medical's portable IVL catheter.

The solution developed by Shockwave Medical is an intravascular lithotripsy (IVL), based on the years of urologic lithotripsy used to treat kidney stones. This treatment uses sonic pressure waves to impact the hard tissue, break up the calcium deposits, and leave the tissue undisturbed. The intravascular version of this developed by Shockwave Medical is a miniaturized and array lithotripsy emitter which can create a localized field effect at the site of the calcium for the treatment of cardiovascular buildup.

The treatment involves delivering the IVL catheter across a calcified legion where the balloon around a small wire is expanded to 4atm to facilitate energy transfer. An electrical discharge is then used to vaporize fluid within the balloon and create an expanding and collapsing bubble that generates sonic pressure waves. These waves develop a localized field effect traveling through the soft vascular tissue and intended to crack intimal and medial calcium in the vessel walls. And after the calcium has been broken up, the balloon can be used to dilate the lesion and lower pressure to improve on luminal gain.