Journal of vascular surgery
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Embolic stroke is a major cause of morbidity in aortic and cardiac interventional procedures. Although cerebral embolic protection devices have been developed for carotid interventions and for open heart surgery, a percutaneous device for cerebral embolic protection during aortic and cardiac interventions would be desirable. ⋯ The Embrella Embolic Deflector performs safely and reliably in the swine model of human atheroembolism. It effectively deflects almost all emboli downstream, away from the carotid circulation. The deflector shows promise as an aortic embolic protection device and merits further investigation.