PURPOSE: In vitro evaluation of six established and two new IVC Filters in order to compare their capture rates.MATERIAL AND METHODS: Six established IVC Filters, the already in vitro tested Cook Celect Filter and a newly developed mesh Filter had to pass several tests in a flow model where they had to prove capture efficiency in vertical and horizontal positions as well as in concentric and eccentric centering. The study was divided into a single- and multi-clot test, where they were exposed to single or multi blood clots of different sizes (3x5, 3x10, 5x10, 5x20, 7x20, 10x24 mm). RESULTS: In the single-clot test the capture rate of the different filters increased significantly (p < 0.001) with increasing clot size. The filter position (horizontal, vertical) did not show any statistical significance (p = 0.3870, p = 0.2241) in either single or multi exposure. In contrast to the filter position, the filter centering (concentric, eccentric) had a statistically significant effect on the capture efficiency in multi exposure (p = 0.0149).CONCLUSION: There are remarkable differences between the tested IVC filters. The Cook Celect filter, the Günther tulip filter and the newly developed mesh filter reached the best results. With larger emboli the Vena Tech LP filter and the OptEase filter obtained equally good capture rates. The Anthéor filter, the Recovery filter and the Titanium Greenfield filter achieved substandard test-results
