In the market for neurovascular devices, cerebral venous disorders are an emerging but growing area of research, product development and neurointervention. To date, the neurovascular field has primarily focused on treating conditions that affect the arterial side of the brain. However, in the last decade, an increasing number of researchers and physicians have focused on identifying and treating venous causes of various disorders and have developed and rapidly adopted new venous procedures, including venous sinus stenting, for the treatment of pulsatile tinnitus, idiopathic intracranial hypertension and headaches, among other disorders.
While this is a relatively new frontier in neurovascular, the market for these disorders is potentially vast and underserved and there is growing interest among physicians and neurovascular companies in advancing research and innovation to improve the diagnosis and treatment of neuro-venous disorders. To learn more about the latest research and innovation in this emerging field, SmartTRAK spoke with Ferdinand Hui, MD, a well-known figure in neurointervention and a key opinion leader in the endovascular treatment of cerebral venous disorders, at the Fourth Annual Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s (SNIS) Cerebral Venous and CSF Disorders Summit held March 5-7, 2026 in Colorado Springs, CO.. Dr. Hui is the medical director of Neurointerventional Surgery at the Queen's Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, and a clinical professor of radiology at the University of Hawaii.
Listen to the interview below (30:11 min) to find out more, including current and emerging indications, the status of research and innovation, and challenges and opportunities ahead in the endovascular treatment of cerebral venous disorders. A link to download a full transcript of the interview is also provided below.
Interview Transcript
Hi, everybody. Anne Staylor here with SmartTRAK. I'm in Colorado Springs at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery Cerebral Venous and CSF Disorders Summit. And today, I'm talking with Ferdinand Hui. He is the medical director of Neurointerventional Surgery at the Queen's Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, and the clinical professor of radiology at the University of Hawaii. He is a well-known figure in neurointervention as a key opinion leader in the endovascular treatment of cerebral venous disorders. He also frequently chairs the SNIS Venous Summit. Thank you for talking with me today.
Dr. Ferdinand Hui: Pleasure.
So, I'm really glad I had the opportunity to go to the lectures yesterday, because I had no idea, really, how big this area was. I think I mentioned that to you yesterday. So, I'd like to start broadly and have you provide an overview of this emerging area of neurointervention-what it is, what it encompasses and what the top indications are for the endovascular treatment of cerebral venous disorders.
FH: That's a great question. And I think I would start by saying this is a new field, and defining disease is also a bit tricky because while some of us in this field feel very strongly that there is a distinct group of patients that suffer from this spectrum of diseases, there are others that still think that these are not real diseases. And so, that bit of tension exists, and that will work itself out over the next 5-10 years. As you may recall, the discovery or the description of prions was also very, very controversial until it wasn't. And it became very obvious to everyone that this was clearly how protein-based disorders worked. And right now, the basic thesis that we've got is that if you have impaired venous outflow, you can't clear used blood, used metabolites, waste materials out of an organ.
And if you can't clear it, bad things start happening to that organ. Your brain is a very sensitive organ, and it wants to be clean. And so, when you can't drain it through the veins, the old blood is backed up. It doesn't feel good. I would describe it, at least for a lot of these patients, like being strangled. If you can't get blood out of your head, you're miserable. And one of the things that has made this a very difficult disease is because this was simply not considered a probable or possible mechanism by most physicians. We just didn't think about it. I remember being trained and veins were just veins. They didn't matter except as an access point to go treat things. And so, what we're working on at this summit is looking at everything with a fresh pair of eyes.
Could this be a waste management problem? Could this be a problem of venous outflow? And adjacent to that, or rather very integrated, is the function of ...
In this exclusive interview conducted at SNIS 2026, Dr. Ferdinand Hui and Anne Staylor, SmartTRAK Exec Editor, VP & GM of Neuro Therapies, discuss the evolving landscape of cerebral venous disorders, from current and emerging indications and procedural challenges to future clinical breakthroughs. Click the button below to download the complete transcript of “Challenges and Opportunities in the Endovascular Treatment of Cerebral Venous Disorders.”