Microvascular Plug (MVP) for the Treatment of Pulmonary ArterioVenous Malformations (PAVMs)

The purpose of this study is to compare the use of the Micro Vascular Plug (MVP) system and other embolic devices in treatment of PAVMs. Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations (PAVMs) are abnormal connections between the pulmonary vein and the pulmonary artery. This affects blood flow between the heart and lungs which puts patients at risk of stroke, brain abscess, hypoxia and even sudden death. The standard treatment of PAVMs is embolization. Embolization is the placing of an embolic (synthetic agent) into a blood vessel to block blood flow. The embolic is inserted via a catheter into the blood vessel. Detachable coils are the most commonly used embolic in the treatment of PAVMs. Despite long procedure times, numerous coils that are often required to occlude a single PAVM and recanalization rates ranging from 5% to 15%, the most widely used embolic device is still the detachable coil.