Endovascular Transcarotid Artery Revascularization Using the Walrus Balloon Guide Catheter: Preliminary Experience

The Walrus Balloon Guided System Catheter is a new generation of balloon guide catheter (BGC) designed to bypass some technical limitations of conventional BGC devices. Their utility in cervical carotid disease treatment has not been reported. We report our preliminary experience in cervical carotid treatment using the Walrus BGC to perform a modified endovascular transcarotid artery revascularization technique.

Patients with cervical carotid disease undergoing endovascular treatment using the Walrus BGC at our institution were identified. The pertinent baseline demographics and procedural outcomes were collected and analyzed.

Twelve patients were included (median age, 70; 58.3% females). All patients had an imaging-confirmed cervical carotid disease that indicated intervention: 6 with high-grade cervical arteriosclerotic carotid stenosis, 2 with intraluminal thrombi, 1 with traumatic carotid dissection, and 3 patients with cervical carotid tandem occlusion along with acute ischemic stroke secondary to large vessel occlusion that required mechanical thrombectomy. Carotid artery stenting was performed in all cases, except 2 of the 3 mechanical thrombectomy cases (angioplasty only). All patients had at least periprocedural follow-up of 30 days, with no stroke, myocardial infarction, or death encountered.

We describe a modified endovascular transcarotid artery revascularization technique. We used a standard femoral access to navigate the Walrus catheter in the common carotid artery, followed by balloon inflation for proximal flow arrest or flow reversal (when connected to the aspiration pump) to deploy the carotid stent across the stenosis, while avoiding distal external carotid artery balloon occlusion. Successful treatment was achieved in all cases, with no periprocedural complications encountered.