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| InSightec's ExAblate system |
After winning approval in Canada for its ultrasound technology designed to destroy uterine fibroids, Israel's InSightec is now headed to China with with its ExAblate device.
A nonsurgical approach, ExAblate uses magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound--a combination of high-intensity ultrasound waves and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)--to allow physicians to pinpoint a specific area of the fibroid, deliver ultrasound energy and ablate noncancerous fibroid tissue.
Shanghai First People's Hospital, Huashan Hospital and Fudan Cancer Center will be among the first to use the noninvasive treatment on patients, the company reports.
"Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound technology gives women with uterine fibroids a new option that avoids an invasive surgery, requires no hospital stay and has much shorter recovery time than other treatments." said Prof. Guixiang Zhang, director of the radiology department at Shanghai First People's Hospital, in a statement.
The company first snagged Chinese approval of the device in July 2013.
Among the device's benefits, InSightec claims ExAblate is incisionless and does not require hospitalization, making it a more desirable option than myomectomy, or surgical removal of the fibroid.
InSightec won over the FDA in October with approval of ExAblate O.R. to treat pain from bone metastases. Now, the company is focusing on ExAblate Neuro, which uses the same ultrasound technology to ablate tissue in the thymus gland and treat essential tremor.
- read the release
Special Report: FierceMedicalDevices' 2013 Fierce 15 - InSightec