The Problem with Good Enough: One Neurosurgeon’s Push for Better Tools

Inside UC Irvine startup AquaTeX and one neurosurgeon’s push for better tools

As a neurointerventional surgeon, Dr. Ichiro Yuki spends his days navigating some of the body’s narrowest and most fragile passageways. Through tiny catheters threaded into blood vessels, he treats aneurysms, strokes, vascular malformations and other potentially devastating conditions deep inside the brain.

What still surprises many people, including Yuki himself, is what some of those procedures routinely rely on. One of the standard materials physicians inject into blood vessels is essentially a medical version of super glue. Another commonly used material depends on a powerful organic solvent that Yuki compares to nail polish remover.

“You probably don’t believe it,” he says with a laugh. “But this is the most commonly used material for this purpose on the market right now.”

For years, Yuki and other specialists adapted to the limitations. Some materials had an unfortunate tendency to stick to catheters. Others were difficult to control or harsh on delicate vessels. In certain procedures, surgeons had to work carefully to avoid trapping a catheter inside the brain.

“No one believes that we are using ideal materials,” Yuki says, referring to injectable materials used to block blood flow to aneurysms, vascular malformations and tumors. “We just got used to them.”

The consequences of those limitations have sometimes been severe. FDA reports describe more than 50 cases in which catheters became trapped during brain procedures using one common embolic material. Multiple deaths were linked to the complications. Other materials can damage blood vessels or lose effectiveness over time as blocked vessels reopen.

The tools, in other words, have never been as good as the procedures they’re meant to support. Surgeons already understood the limitations. The harder part was building something better and navigating the years of testing, regulation and funding required to bring it into medicine. Instead of accepting “good enough,” Yuki decided to try building something better.

What emerged was AquaTeX Medical and its Aqua Embolic System, or AES, a hydrogel material intended to move through tiny blood vessels without sticking to the catheter delivering it. AES is designed to remain visible under X-ray imaging as it moves through tiny blood vessels, allowing physicians to track the material more precisely during procedures.

Read the full article by Jill Kato in UCI Beall Applied Innovation.