August 15, 2012 — Previously unreleased three-year data from the Zilver PTX randomized controlled trial of paclitaxel-eluting stents for femoropopliteal disease indicate that Cook Medical’s paclitaxel-eluting peripheral vascular stent demonstrated 83 percent freedom from TLR at 36 months in the PTX group, compared to 70.2 percent for patients treated with optimal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and bare metal stents in the 479-patient study.

August 14, 2012 — Berlin Heart announced that a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) concluded that survival using the Excor pediatric ventricular assist device (VAD) is "significantly greater" than the standard-of-care (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO) as a bridging therapy for children in need of a heart transplant.

August 14, 2012 — The next five years will see many hospitals in Europe overcoming the high cost and complexity of implementing hybrid operating rooms (OR) by adopting better planning and budget allocation. This will encourage hospitals with larger cardiac and neurosurgery services to implement at least one hybrid OR, suggests new analysis from Frost & Sullivan.

August 14, 2012 — Positron Corp. announced the transfer, consolidation and integration of its radiopharmaceutical operations from the Crown Point, Ind. facility to its Lubbock, Texas site.

August 14, 2012 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is hosting a public workshop that examines use of absorbable materials in implantable devices for endovascular therapies such as fully absorbable cardiovascular stents, where the stent platform degrades, as well as absorbable coatings.