Alliance for Next-Generation Cryoablation

An alliance has been announced to develop a new cryoablation system that will be able to deliver a more powerful freeze for difficult-to-reach and/or sensitive tissues within the body, including those that require a flexible catheter system.

Cryoablation is the use of freezing cold temperature delivered via a catheter to destroy tissue, such as ablating a small area of the heart to prevent arrhythmia, or destroying cancer cells, such as in the prostate.

Endocare (Irvine, CA, USA) has entered into a long-term collaborative agreement with CryoDynamics (Mountainside, NJ, USA) to jointly develop and commercialize a next-generation "near-critical nitrogen” cryoablation system for new clinical applications. The agreement includes the licensing of certain patents as well as licensing and royalty-fee sharing agreements in which Endocare will garner a majority of the fees.

"Nitrogen is a well-known efficient freezing agent, but it's not the best solution for most clinical applications,” said William Nydam, Endocare's president. "However, near-critical nitrogen provides controlled, efficient freezing capability with an abundant, inexpensive cryogen and a streamlined system that has the potential to ablate tissue faster, safer, less expensive and more clinically effective for certain new clinical applications. Near-critical nitrogen can be delivered at lower pressures, increasing the safety profile of the procedure; and it requires less cryogen, decreasing the system management/handling requirements for hospital personnel both during and between procedures.

A near-critical nitrogen system maintains the cryogen in a single phase close to a thermodynamically critical point, thereby eliminating the historical functioning challenges of using liquid nitrogen while still benefiting from its strong freezing capabilities. According to Mr. Nydam, near-critical nitrogen technology is a major breakthrough that offers significant advantages over both older nitrogen systems and current Joule Thompson-based argon and nitrous oxide systems.




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