MÖLNLYCKE HEALTH CARE
Several hundred European World Management Association (EWMA) delegates attended the Mölnlycke Health Care symposium to better understand the clinicians' view on negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT)‐related pain and trauma and its impact on cost and quality of life.
New economic data was presented to wound care professionals, which challenged them to see how focusing on price per unit could be costly, and how it could also be affecting their patients' quality of life.
Professor Upton opened the symposium. He discussed how clinicians needed to better understand why they should focus on minimising unnecessary patient suffering—because pain and the anticipation of pain will affect patients' quality of life, as well as possibly the healing of the wound.
Dr Chadwick then discussed with the audience if the cost of patient pain and trauma could be quantified, and if so, would it make a critical input to the choice of dressing regimen? He explained that cost also has a human factor—the price of wound and tissue trauma and pain—and that if patient comfort is ignored, actual and overall treatment costs will increase.
The final symposium speaker was Rolf Jelnes, MD. He pointed out that decisions made with a per‐unit price perspective may be a very costly approach. He challenged the delegates to look beyond price and to focus on total cost and patient experience.
Afterwards in the Mölnlycke Health Care booth, attendees were able to reflect on the symposium with all three speakers. Delegates who took this opportunity gave feedback indicating that the entire symposium had been interesting and relevant.
For health care professionals who had missed the symposium a video from the symposium will be published soon.
CONVATEC
ConvaTec, a privately held developer and marketer of innovative medical technologies, today announced that John Cannon has been named acting Chief Financial Officer of the company.
Mr Cannon succeeds Edward Borkowski, who has left the company.
I would like to thank Ed for his contributions to ConvaTec's success over the past year and wish him well in the future. Ken Berger, CEO of ConvaTec.
Mr Cannon is currently Vice President of Finance for ConvaTec's global operations, which includes manufacturing, and for its Asia‐Pacific and EMEA regions.
Mr Cannon was previously with PMC Treasury, a financial advisory firm for private‐equity‐sponsored companies, and was the senior financial officer with Singer Sewing. Earlier, he spent 15 years in banking with Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank, including 8 years in Asia‐Pacific. He has a BS degree in Physics and Economics from Haverford College and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.
KCI
KCI launches Prevena™ Peel & Place™ dressing with V.A.C.® Therapy Connector
Benefits of surgical incision management now available to more patients
Kinetic Concepts, Inc. launched a Prevena Peel & Place Dressing with a V.A.C. Connector, which expands the availability of the Prevena Incision Management System. Now, more patients will be able to benefit from surgical incision protection in facilities currently using KCI V.A.C. Therapy Systems. Surgeons will also have the flexibility to actively manage incisions with a variety of KCI Therapy Systems and dressing configurations to deliver the optimum patient outcome.
The Prevena System covers and protects the incision site and removes exudate and infectious material, which could save costs for hospitals by helping to manage incisions in patients undergoing a variety of orthopaedic, gynaecological, cardiovascular and plastic surgery surgical procedures.
The Prevena Incision Management System is the first and only powered negative pressure product designed specifically for surgical incision management. The Prevena System has been associated with a reduced risk of postoperative complications when compared with standard of care incision management in published studies covering a variety of incision types, including standard orthopaedic, cardiothoracic and vascular procedures.
Two recently published independent studies on the Prevena System demonstrated favourable clinical outcomes in patients at risk of postoperative complications. This month, in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Dr Grauhan and coworkers reported statistically significant results of a prospective controlled trial of 150 obese patients undergoing sternotomy procedures (1). In this study, the control group treated with conventional sterile wound dressings experienced a 16% rate of infection versus 4% in the group treated with Prevena Therapy (P = 0.0266). In the USA, the average cost of a sternal wound infection is $64 000 (2).
Similarly, positive results were reported in the March edition of the Journal of Vascular Surgery. Dr Matatov and coworkers performed a retrospective analysis of 115 groin incisions in patients requiring femoral cut‐down procedures for vascular surgery (3). In this study, 30% of the patients in the control group (treated with either skin adhesives or absorbent dressings) experienced wound infections, whereas only 6% of the group treated with Prevena Therapy developed wound infections (P = 0.0011). Surgical site infections of the groin can increase hospital stay by more than 9 days, costing facilities more than $20 000 per infection to treat; they also have an adverse impact on patient's quality of life.
KCI estimates that more than 3 million procedures performed each year worldwide could benefit from incision management with the Prevena System.
For more information about KCI and the Prevena Incision Management System, please visit www.KCI1.com.
Grauhan O, Navasardyan A, Hofmann M, Müller P, Stein J, Hetzer R. Prevention of poststernotomy wound infections in obese patients by negative pressure wound therapy. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2013;145:1387–92.
Market Research National Level Report. Data from the Marketscan Projected Inpatient, Hospital Drug and Medpar Databases: Calendar Year 2011. New York, NY: Thomson Reuters, 2013.
Matatov T, Reddy KN, Doucet LD, Zhao CX, Zhang WW. Experience with a new negative pressure incision management system in prevention of groin wound infection in vascular surgery patients. J Vasc Surg 2013;57:791–5.
COVIDIEN
Covidien wins Gold Medical Design Excellence Award for Sonicision™ Cordless Ultrasonic Dissection System
Covidien, a leading global provider of health care products, announced that its Sonicision cordless ultrasonic dissection system won the 2013 Medical Design Excellence Award (MDEA), one of the medical technology industry's highest honours.
Covidien's iDrive™ Ultra powered stapling system was also an MDEA finalist in the same category for Surgical Equipment, Instruments and Supplies. Since 1998, the MDEA program has recognised significant advances in medical product design and engineering that improve the quality of health care delivery and accessibility.
Sonicision, the medical industry's first cordless ultrasonic dissection device, is a hand‐held, battery‐powered surgical device that is indicated for a wide variety of surgical procedures. The cordless design gives surgeons complete freedom of movement in the operating theatre—a first in the surgical application of ultrasonic energy.
The first product of its kind, the Sonicision cordless ultrasonic dissection device, is a hand‐held, battery‐powered surgical instrument developed for soft tissue incision and haemostasis in a wide variety of surgical procedures. The innovative device delivers high‐frequency ultrasonic vibrations, which simultaneously cut and coagulate tissue. Sonicision has been shown to deliver faster dissection through tissue (1) and fewer plumes for improved (2) visibility in the surgical field.
The unique cordless design and simplified set‐up of the Sonicision system allow for more freedom of movement and better efficiency in the operating theatre. Its intuitive dual‐mode energy activation control enables easy transition between energy modes for ease of use.
The iDrive Ultra system is the only reusable, fully powered endostapler available in the market today, offering one‐handed, push‐button operation of all stapler controls for superior precision. It offers fingertip control of clamping, articulation, rotation, firing and opening, reducing unwanted motion during all stapling actions, with unlimited articulation within the 45° left/right range. This enables surgeons to place the device where they want it and keep it there throughout the stapling application. The iDrive Ultra system can be used in procedures where Covidien Endo GIA™ reloads are indicated, both in minimally invasive and open surgery.
The iDrive Ultra device is fully compatible with Covidien's complete line of Endo GIA reloads with Tri‐Staple™ technology, which provides consistent performance over a broader range of tissue thickness.
The 2013 Medical Design Excellence Awards were presented at a ceremony on June 19 in Philadelphia, in conjunction with the Medical Design & Manufacturing East event.
Tsirline VB, Lau KN, Swan RZ, Montero PN, Sindram D, Martinie JB, Iannitti DA. Evaluation of an Innovative, Cordless Ultrasonic Dissector. Surg Innov 2013.
Kim FJ, Sehrt D, Pompeo A, Molina WR. Comparison of surgical plume among laparoscopic ultrasonic dissectors using a real‐time digital quantitative technology. Surg Endosc 2012;26:3408–12.
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON
Surgical knife that detects cancerous cells
Scientists have created an ‘intelligent’ surgical knife that can detect in seconds whether tissue being cut is cancerous, promising more effective and accurate surgery in future.
The device, built by researchers at London's Imperial College, could allow doctors to cut back on additional operations to remove further pieces of cancerous tumours.
The technology, effectively merging an electrosurgical knife that cuts through tissue using heat with a mass spectrometer for chemical analysis, has also been shown to be able to distinguish beef from horsemeat.
Surgeons often find it impossible to tell by sight where tumours end and healthy tissue begins, so some cancer cells are often left behind. A fifth of breast cancer patients who have lumpectomy surgery need a second operation.
The new ‘iKnife’ is designed to get round the problem by instantly sampling the smoke given off as tissue is cut through using an electric current to see if it is cancerous.
In the first study to test the device in patients, the iKnife diagnosed tissue samples from 91 patients with 100% accuracy, researchers at Imperial College London reported in Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday.
Currently, removed tissue can be sent for laboratory analysis while the patient remains under general anaesthetic—but each test takes around half an hour, while the iKnife provides feedback in less than 3 seconds. It does this by analysing biological information given off from burning tissue and comparing the findings to a database of biological fingerprints from tumours and healthy tissue.
Zoltan Takats of Imperial College, who invented the device, said he aimed to test it in a clinical trial, involving between 1000 and 1500 patients with various types of cancers. That trial process is likely to take 2 or 3 years and only then will the iKnife be submitted for regulatory approval, paving the way for its commercialisation.
Takats has founded a Budapest‐based company called MediMass to develop the product and he expects to strike a partnership deal with a major medical technology company to bring it to market in North America and Europe. The current experimental version of the iKnife cost Takats and coworkers at Imperial around £200 000 to build. Takats said the price would come down once it entered commercial production.
The research was welcomed by Health Minister Lord Howe, who said it could benefit both patients and the health service by reducing the number of people requiring secondary operations for cancer.
The iKnife may also have a place beyond cancer, according to Takats, because it can identify tissue with an inadequate blood supply, as well as types of bacteria present in the tissue.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Human scabs serve as inspiration for new bandage to speed healing
Human scabs have become the model for development of an advanced wound dressing material that shows promise for speeding the healing process, scientists are reporting.
Their study appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Shutao Wang and coworkers explained that scabs are a perfect natural dressing material for wounds. In addition to prevent further bleeding, scabs protect against infection and recruit the new cells required for healing. Existing bandages and other dressings for wounds generally are intended to prevent bleeding and infections. Wang's team set out to develop a new generation of wound dressings that reduce the risk of infections while speeding the healing process.
They describe how research on the surface structure of natural scabs served as inspiration for developing a ‘cytophilic’ wound dressing material. It attracts new cells required for healing. The material mimics the underside of scabs, where tiny fibres are arranged in the same direction like velvet or a cat's fur. Wang's team spun fibres of polyurethane—the common durable and flexible plastic—into the same pattern. In laboratory experiments, the human cells involved in healing quickly attached to the membrane and lined up similar to those in actual scabs. The scientists conclude that this membrane ‘is of great potential in fabricating dressing materials for rapid wound healing, as well as other biomaterials, such as membrane for capturing circulating tumour cells, bone growth and constructing neural networks’.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Research Fund for Fundamental Key Projects, the National Natural Science Foundation, the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.
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