Academic-Industry Partnership Leads to Breakthrough Blood Salvage Technology
August 21, 2012 – 5:12 pm
By reducing blood loss in patients, a blood salvage technology developed at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, is poised to transform the practice of surgery, according to a press release posted on the university website. The device is designed to recover blood spilled during open-heart and major trauma surgery and concentrate the blood cells for transfusion back to the patient. The autotransfusion process reduces the volume of donor blood required and the problems associated with transfusion reaction. Professor Terry Gourlay, who led the project within the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, describes the accomplishment as a “fantastic example of real collaboration between the University of Strathclyde and the medical device industry in taking the HemoSep device from concept to clinical delivery.”
The device consists of a blood bag, which employs a chemical sponge technology and a mechanical agitator to concentrate blood sucked from the surgical site or drained from the heart-lung machine after the surgery. The separated cells are then returned to the patient by intravenous transfusion.
“The introduction of HemoSep to the medical device field will make a significant difference to people’s lives and greatly reduce the cost and risks associated with blood transfusions, says Gourlay. “The technology has distinct advantages over traditional techniques, which are not only costly but technically challenging.”
HemoSep has been granted the CE mark and received approval from Canada’s regulatory authorities, following successful clinical trials in University of Kirikkale University Hospital in Ankara, Turkey.
“We expect further developments in the form of a derivative of this technology for use in children undergoing open-heart surgery, where the challenges of blood conservation are even more critical,” adds Gourlay.
HemoSep has been licensed to Advancis Surgical Ltd. The company will market and sell the device in all European territories, other regions that recognise the CE mark and Canada.
Professors Gourlay and Serdar Gunaydin, Head of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Kirikkale where the clinical trials were conducted, will present the results of the recent clinical trials at the European Society for Artificial Organs congress in Rostock, Germany, in September. The presentation coincides with Advancis Surgical’s commercial launch of the device.
