Cardiac surgeons and cardiologists at the University of Maryland Heart Center are part of a multi-center clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of powering heart pumps through a skull-based connector behind the ear. Typically, these devices for patients with severe heart failure are energized through an electrical cord connected at an abdominal site.

IMRIS Inc. announced that a craniotomy recently performed on a 5-year-old boy with epilepsy was the 500^th neurosurgical case at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, using its intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) system. Cook Children's was the second children's hospital in the United States and fourth hospital worldwide with an IMRIS system that features a high-field MRI, which moves between surgical and diagnostic rooms using ceiling-mounted rails.

Patient enrollment has been initiated in a post-market registry for the Combo Dual Therapy Stent to evaluate its long-term safety and performance in routine clinical practice. The prospective, multicenter, all-comers REMEDEE Registry (Multicenter, Prospective, Clinical Outcomes After Deployment of the Abluminal Sirolimus Coated Bio-Engineered Stent — Combo Bio-Engineered Sirolimus Eluting Stent — Post Market Registry) will enroll 1,000 patients at nine European sites. As of today, more than 100 patients have already been enrolled.

The first implantation of Tyrx Inc.’s new AigisRx R Fully Resorbable Antibacterial Envelope has taken place at the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute in Nashville, Tenn., by Christopher R. Ellis. The AigisRx R Antibacterial Envelope received U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance on May 20, 2013.