Abstract TP220: Intracranial Dotter Angioplasty Using Tenzing for Symptomatic Atherosclerotic Stenosis: Initial Experience

Introduction: Traditional endovascular treatment for acutely symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) includes balloon angioplasty and stenting. Catheter mediated angioplasty (or “Dotter” angioplasty) has been previously described for extracranial carotid and peripheral arteries. The Tenzing 7 (Route 92 Medical, San Mateo, CA), a novel shelf-reducing delivery catheter, has an atraumatic tapered distal tip that progressively enlarges to a 0.062 inch (1.6 mm) outer diameter, which may enable catheter-mediated Dotter angioplasty of ICAD, or Tenzing-plasty. We report our initial experience in treating symptomatic ICAD using Tenzing-plasty.

Methods: After IRB approval, we performed a retrospective review of patients undergoing endovascular treatment for symptomatic ICAD with Tenzing-plasty as a first approach at our stroke centers from 2021-2023. All patients were treated using the Tenzing 7 delivery catheter in an off-label fashion. The Tenzing was slowly inserted across the ICAD stenosis in each case under roadmap fluoroscopic guidance. Subsequent balloon angioplasty and/or stenting were at operator discretion. We examined clinical, imaging, and procedural data.

Results: We identified 14 consecutive patients with symptomatic ICAD stenosis who underwent Tenzing-plasty, either as part of an emergent thrombectomy procedure, or if medical management of ICAD had failed. The median age was 62±11 years and 6 were female (43%). Stenosis location was: 1 ICA, 7 M1, 4 M2, 2 vertebral. The average pre-treatment ICAD stenosis was 95±7%, including 6 patients (43%) with complete occlusion. In 100% of cases, Tenzing-plasty resulted in improvement in arterial caliber after median 1 pass (IQR1-1), with average stenosis improving to 64±15%. Subsequent balloon angioplasty was performed in 3/14 cases (21%). Stenting was performed in 10 cases (using Atlas, Wingspan, Onyx Resolute, Onyx Frontier). There were no instances of arterial perforation or symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage.

Conclusions: Intracranial Dotter angioplasty as a first approach using the novel tapered tip Tenzing 7 catheter may be a feasible and safe alternative for improving luminal caliber and flow restoration of symptomatic ICAD lesions. Further study is warranted.