Edwards Lifesciences won FDA clearance to integrate its ForeSight brain tissue oxymetry sensors with the HemoSphere monitoring platform. While the clearance is really for a connecting cable, the capability allows anesthesiologists to monitor the oxygen saturation of the brain during surgeries and to correlate it with hemodynamic parameters in real- (Read more...)
Tag: Cardiac Surgery
Barostim Neo Neuromodulation Device for Heart Failure Wins FDA Approval
CVRx, a Minneapolis, Minnesota company, won FDA approval for the first neuromodulation device designed to address heart failure. Intended as a treatment option for patients with an ejection fraction ≤35% and New York Heart Failure Classification of III or II (with recent history of Class III), the device stimulates the carotid artery and in turn (Read more...)
Nexus Ultrasonic Surgical Platform from Misonix Cleared in Europe
Mixonix, a Farmingdale, New York company that focuses on ultrasonic devices for surgical applications, including osteotomies and debridements, landed European CE Mark approval for its Nexus surgical platform. The system was FDA cleared earlier this year. The Nexus combines the capabilities of Mixonix’s three existing products, namely BoneScal (Read more...)
Adult Human Heart Tissue Grown Using Biowire II Platform
TARA Biosystems, a firm based in New York City, and GlaxoSmithKline have managed to grow adult cardiac tissue inside the Biowire II platform developed by TARA, and have used this live tissue as a test bed for cardiac drug research. Previously, growing cardiac tissue from human induced pluripotent stem cells that can be used in […]
Carbon Nanotube Fibers as Electrical Bridges for Damaged Heart Tissue
Damaged heart tissue, as a result of a myocardial infarct, is not only a problem because it weakens overall cardiac function but also because it no longer conducts electricity well enough to effectively propagate the heart’s signals. Arrhythmias are a common result of this, and although there are drugs that can help some patients, the [&helli (Read more...)
Biomaterial Tricks Immune System to Grow New Blood Vessels
Researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed a new biomaterial that can activate T cells to promote vascularization of ischemic tissues. Their work demonstrates that the biomaterial results in local blood vessel development, increased perfusion, and new muscle growth after ischemia. Various compounds have been tested to try to imp (Read more...)
Magnetically Controlled Soft Robots to Operate on Human Body
Although a myriad of robots is already used in a variety of industries, including medicine, they’re almost exclusively rigid devices using conventional mechanics. To best work with the pliability of the human body, it may be advantageous for medical robots to be soft and not include gears, motors, and metal cables. Researchers at North Caroli (Read more...)
Future of Robotics in Healthcare: Interview with Corey Ryan of Kuka Laboratories
As the manager of Medical Robotics at KUKA Robotics, Corey Ryan is at the helm of company’s research, sales, and growth in the medical sector for North America. Under his leadership, KUKA has diversified its expertise to grow its relationships with startups and expand its robotic applications. Corey is a sought after speaker and has [… (Read more...)
3D Printed Cardiac Components
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a method to 3D print collagen and cells to form organ components, potentially paving the way for full organ printing in the future. The technique, called Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH), involves printing collagen layer-by-layer in a bath of support gel, which all (Read more...)
Breath Analyzer for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a condition in which fluid leaks into the lungs and builds up in the alveoli within. It is a rapidly progressive condition that often leads to terminal consequences, yet it can be difficult to diagnose and monitor. Now, researchers at University of Michigan have developed a portable device that [&hellip (Read more...)
Using Microparticles to Measure Oxygen in Tissues
The field of tissue engineering is rapidly progressing, in large part thanks to hydrogel scaffolds that provide a comfortable home for new cells. A major issue that researchers bump against is tracking how well oxygen reaches freshly grown cells within such scaffolds, which can indicate how well the new cells are generally functioning. Now, researc (Read more...)
Centerline’s Radiation-Free IOPS System for Minimally Invasive Procedures
Centerline Biomedical, a company based in Cleveland, Ohio, landed FDA clearance for its Intra-Operative Positioning System (IOPS). The product provides physicians with a radiation-free way to navigate through vasculature during minimally invasive procedures. Currently, X-ray fluoroscopy is used to track where minimally invasive instruments are in a (Read more...)
Potrero Medical Receives CE Mark for the Accuryn® Monitoring System.
The company received its FDA clearance in 2016 when it transformed the traditional urinary catheter into a smart sensing platform that helps to accurately monitor vital signs in real-time, such as urine output (UO) and intra-abdominal pressure (IAP). Traditional urinary catheters have issues draining urine from the bladder, causing inaccurate UO me (Read more...)
Blood Flow Measurement Using Tiny LED Catheter
Measuring blood flow is important during a variety of surgical procedures, as well as in intensive care settings. Typically, this is performed intermittently, so there’s not a lot of temporal detail in the readings. Now, a team of researchers at Flinders University in Australia has developed a proof-of-concept prototype vascular catheter that (Read more...)
BIOMONITOR III Injectable Cardiac Monitor Wins FDA Clearance
Having unveiled their BIOMONITOR III a couple of weeks ago, BIOTRONIK just won FDA clearance for the device. The new version of the BIOMONITOR injectable cardiac monitor is less than half the size of the previous model, but it offers the ability to provide a substantially improved signal quality. Designed to be injected under the […]
Tiny Nanowire Probes Measure Intracellular Electrical Activity
Researchers at the University of Surrey and Harvard University have developed tiny nanoprobes that can measure electrical signals inside cells, such as neurons and cardiac cells. Unlike previous technology for intracellular electrophysiology, the nanoprobes cause minimal destruction to the cells, and could pave the way for human-machine interfaces (Read more...)
Artificial Bacterial Protein Allows Stem Cells to Home to the Heart
Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a way to make stem cells move toward heart tissue when they are injected intravenously. The treatment could improve the efficacy of stem cell therapies for heart disease, which are currently hampered when most injected cells are filtered out of circulation by organs such as the lungs [… (Read more...)
Microfluidic Chip Allows Embryonic Stem Cells to Differentiate
Complex multicellular organisms, such as ourselves, start out from stem cells that differentiate into different kinds of cells. This process is controlled by groups of cells that secrete special signaling molecules called morphogens, which guide nearby stem cells to turn into the kinds of cells that should be located in that region. This is an [&he (Read more...)
Floating Flexible Sensor to Monitor Engineered Tissues and Cell Cultures
Tissue engineering is a vibrant research field poised to revolutionize how we heal organs and tissues following damage from injury and disease. One of the difficulties that scientists working with cultured cells discover is the inability to closely monitor a number of characteristics of their cellular cultures. One reason is that water and electron (Read more...)
Radiation-Free Guidance for Vascular Catheters Using Smart Fiber Optics
While modern catheters can reach into various parts of the body, navigating there remains a major challenge. Fluoroscopes that emit X-rays are used to constantly keep track of the catheter location, but they emit ionizing radiation and require a great deal of protection to be used by clinicians. Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital [&h (Read more...)