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The Spiration Valve System – A Full Treatment Solution for Emphysema and Air Leaks
05/12/2021
Emphysema is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that is characterized by destruction and enlargement of air sacs within the lungs, which results in decreased lung elasticity. This in turn causes the lungs to become hyperinflated, leading to breathing difficulties. Emphysema and air leaks from lung damage are conditions that have a serious impact on patient quality of life. However, standard medical care and oxygen treatments often become ineffective over time, leading to a need for innovative new therapies. To address this need, Olympus offers the Spiration Valve System (SVS) – a full-service solution for emphysema and air leaks that uses Spiration Valves placed in the lungs via innovative bronchoscopy systems to reduce lung hyperinflation and improve pulmonary function. Already associated with favorable patient responses in several studies and clinical trials 1–3 , the SVS has the potential to provide unprecedented quality of life improvements for patients with emphysema and air leaks.
SVS Enables Patients to Be Themselves Again
As emphysema progresses, conventional treatments including medical management, pulmonary rehabilitation and oxygen therapy may not give patients adequate relief from disease symptoms, which include breathlessness, fatigue and chronic coughing.
In keeping with its role as a provider of advanced technologies and products, Olympus helps address this challenge with the SVS. This full treatment offering provides an effective method of bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR) – a technique for improving lung function shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective 4 , and which is now recommended in guidelines released by agencies including GOLD 5 and NICE 6 as a viable treatment for advanced emphysema. While conventional treatments for severe emphysema such as lung surgery or transplantation require lengthy and complex procedures, the SVS is a minimally invasive technique that is simple and quick to perform.
Spiration valves are small, one-way valves that are placed in affected lung regions by physicians. Inspired by an aerodynamic design, Spiration Valves redirect air away from diseased areas of the lung to healthier tissue, all while allowing trapped air and secretions to escape naturally along the airway wall, so that patients may breathe easier. Spiration Valve treatment is customized to the needs of the individual patient, with a large range of valve sizes and options for placement locations within the lung ensuring maximum therapeutic benefit. The advantages of this customized approach have been highlighted in the results from recent studies and clinical trials 1–3 , in which patients treated with the SVS have shown promising outcomes, including:
- Reduction in lung hyperinflation
- Improvements in pulmonary function
- Improved exercise tolerance
- Improved quality of life
Treatment with Spiration Valves is also improving the lives of air leak patients, accelerating healing of damaged lung tissue and eliminating the need for chest drainage systems or further invasive procedures. These benefits mean that air leak patients can be discharged from hospital sooner and regain their independence.
The Olympus SVS is a full-service solution with a comprehensive product portfolio. By providing advanced methods of patient assessment, innovative bronchoscopy systems for valve placement, as well as dedicated medical expert training, the SVS offers a favorable risk benefit profile for patients and procedural simplicity for physicians.
SVS Offers a Full Solution from Patient Assessment to Valve Placement
As part of the full-service solution offered by Spiration Valve therapy, patients are assessed for treatment suitability using cutting-edge image analysis techniques. SVS offers the SeleCT service, that enables clinicians to submit high resolution CT (HRCT) scans for analysis and receive reproducible measures of emphysema severity such as low attenuation area and markers of low collateral ventilation such as fissure integrity. SVS also provides an airway sizing kit, to determine the appropriate valve size for each airway. Assessment of patients for treatment of air leaks is achieved using a water seal monitor, which enables precise isolation of air leaks within the lung and targeted valve placement.
The process of valve placement is minimally invasive and can be performed using a dedicated SVS deployment catheter and loader with a flexible bronchoscope of diameter 2.6 mm or greater, with a thinner 2.0 mm catheter also available for complex cases in hard-to-reach airways. Olympus offer advanced bronchoscopy systems for Spiration valve placement, including the EVIS X1 video bronchoscope – which combines HDTV image quality with several design features that enable convenient placement of spiration valves in difficult airways.
The innovative design of Spiration Valves and the range of different sizes available mean they can be placed independent of lung anatomy and can be used to treat patients with hyperinflation in sometimes difficult to reach lung regions. Spiration valves use a unique system of anchors, which reduce migration of valves and eliminate expectoration entirely. The umbrella-shaped design of Spiration Valves ensures minimal tissue contact, which maintains natural lung functions such as escape of secretions along the bronchial wall. By minimizing tissue contact, Spiration valves also reduce the foreign body effect in the lungs – helping to improve patient comfort with the deployed valves. Spiration Valves are also designed to facilitate simple retrieval, with 360° access to the removal rod if necessary.
As a full SVS service provider, Olympus also offers medical expert training to physicians on patient selection, air leak isolation and valve placement processes, ensuring physicians and assistants can deploy valves with confidence for optimal patient outcomes.
Summary
The improvements in lung function provided by Spiration Valve therapy enable emphysema and air leak patients to regain their mobility and independence, and the treatment has been described by SVS recipients as a second chance at life7. Recent results from the EMPROVE clinical trial have demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of the SVS, with patients showing significant increases in lung function, reduced shortness of breath and quantifiable increases in quality of life
2
. By combining innovative bronchoscopy solutions with cutting edge valve design, the SVS provides a rapid and straightforward treatment that delivers real improvements in lung function to patients.
Olympus invests in finding the perfect match of products, technologies and workflows, and developing dedicated procedures that expand treatment possibilities and help improve patient outcomes. In addition to the full-service solution of SVS, Olympus also offers a range of advanced solutions for diagnostic bronchoscopy, medical thoracoscopy, and staging and treatment of lung cancers.
To learn more about the range of advanced diagnosis and treatment options offered by Olympus for respiratory diseases, visit our pulmonology products and solutions page.
Key benefits of the SVS
- SVS design is based on our experience of treating not only emphysema patients, but also those with air leaks. Patients treated with Spiration Valves benefit from substantial improvements in lung function and quality of life 1 , 2 , 3
- SVS is a full-service solution, with advanced methods of patient assessment, innovative bronchoscopy systems for valve placement, and dedicated medical expert training – all of which ensure a favorable risk benefit profile for patients
- Spiration valves can be placed independent of anatomy, and are designed to reduce migration, eliminate expectoration and maintain natural lung function with minimal patient discomfort
- Spiration valves are available in a range of sizes, and can be placed using catheters for either 2.6 mm or 2.0 mm working channels for efficient valve placement in both straightforward and complex cases in hard-to-reach airways
References
- 1.The REACH Trial: A Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Safety and Effectiveness of the Spiration® Valve System in the Treatment of Severe Emphysema.
- 2.Improving lung function in severe heterogenous Emphysema with the Spiration Valve System (EMPROVE) a multicenter, open-label randomized controlled clinical trial.
- 3.Endobronchial valve placement and balloon occlusion for persistent air leak: Procedure overview and new current procedural terminology codes for 2013.
- 4.Interventional procedure overview of endobronchial valve insertion to reduce lung volume in emphysema.
- 5.Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 2020 Report.
- 6.Endobronchial valve insertion to reduce lung volume in emphysema.
- 7.Patients & Family.