Q&A: Partnering to Create a New Surgical Device

Vascular surgeon Kellie R. Brown, MD ‘93, FACS, had a problem: no device existed to help remove infected stents from aortas.

As a professor of vascular surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), Dr. Brown understood both the clinical problem and the qualities a successful solution would need. She partnered with businessman Brian Thorson, whose expertise complemented her own, to transform that idea into a medical device. Commercialized through a startup, the device received FDA authorization this year and is now on the market.

We sat down with Dr. Brown to discuss the journey from idea to implementation and what advice she has for others interested in the same path.

You are a vascular surgeon. How long have you been in this field?

I graduated from medical school at MCW in 1993, did my general surgery residency at the University of North Carolina, and came back in 1998 for my vascular surgery fellowship. I was the first woman trained in that program. I’ve been on faculty at MCW since 2002. What attracted me to vascular surgery was aneurysm repairs. Back then, we did open repairs, but endovascular options were developed and became the standard of care.

Tell us about the problem you wanted to solve involving aortic stents.

To treat aortic aneurysms, we put in self-expanding, covered stents called endografts. We’re basically relining the aorta. The stents have barbed metal wires at the top that hook into the artery, which keep them from slipping down.

The problem happens when the endograft fails or gets infected. We must do open surgery to remove the stent, but those barbed metal hooks make it difficult. This is an area of the aorta that is near all the major branches to the abdominal organs, so having an atraumatic way to remove these expanded stents is important.

Sometimes to remove the endograft we used wire cutters to cut the stent, and other times we’d cut the end off a 20-cc syringe and push it over the stent to re-constrain and remove it. Both options were not ideal and could potentially injure the aorta. I kept thinking, there has got to be a better way.

How did you go about trying to solve the problem?

I was in touch with Brian Thorson, who was a device rep for one of the major endograft device companies. He’s a very curious guy and is always reading the scientific literature related to his work. I told him about the issue, and we started talking about potential designs for a device that could safely remove the endograft. Brian went to his basement and started making prototypes. When he brought them to me, I gave him feedback on shape and design. We went through several iterations of design before settling on the final prototype.

Brian brought the idea to the company he worked for, but they weren’t interested in pursuing a product like this. So, when Brian retired, he created a startup called Hjarta Care to develop the device. I became a consultant to the startup.

Tell us about the device that you created.

It’s called EVAR XplantR. It’s a 3D-printed, plastic cylindrical structure that can be easily inserted into the aorta, over the endograft, to collapse and remove the suprarenal stent on the endograft device. It’s smoother and more ergonomic than using a syringe, so there’s not as much friction when you’re inserting it into the aorta, and it is less traumatic to the inner lining of the aorta. Finally, it allows complete removal of the suprarenal fixation, preventing the remaining wire edges of the stent to fray the suture line. It’s a single-use device that comes in four different sizes, based on the size of the aorta. Brian was there the first time I used it. I turned to him and said, “Wow!” It was so much easier than any of the methods we had used before.

How was the journey from idea to implementation?

It took seven or eight years. Brian did all the hard work of forming the company, fundraising, and working with a firm to manufacture it. Once we had a prototype, we filed for a patent and found out we needed FDA authorization. We did extensive testing and received FDA approval in April 2026. Now it’s being sold on the market.

What motivated me was solving a problem I encountered in the operating room. I had some ideas of how the device could work and now, every single time it’s used, it helps a patient.

What advice do you have for other researchers who have an idea that they’d like to bring to market?

You really need a partner who has the strengths in areas you don’t know about, especially the business side of turning an idea into a product. Then work with your institution’s technology transfer or innovation office early in the process. I reached out to MCW’s Office of Technology Development later in the process and realized how much they could have helped from the beginning, from navigating intellectual property to providing guidance on patents and the commercialization process.