TransEnterix announced that it received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Intelligent Surgical Unit (ISU), a system that enables machine vision capabilities on the company’s Senhance Surgical System. According to the company, the ISU allows surgeons to better control the laparoscopic camera by responding to commands and recognizing certain objects (Read more...)
Tag: surgery
New Non-Toxic, Printable Biomedical Material Developed
Synthetic dry elastomers are polymeric materials that feature cross-linked networks that form into random and unordered shapes and textures. These materials have a host of properties that are applicable in biomedicine, but the randomness of their internal structures at different scales makes it difficult to actually use these elastomers. Now, resea (Read more...)
Masimo Receives FDA Approval for Continuous RRp Monitoring
Masimo announced that it received FDA clearance for continuous RRp (respiration rate from the photoplethysmograph) monitoring with its with Rad-97, Radical-7, and Radius-7 Pulse Co-Oximeters. Usually, monitoring respiration rate involves manually counting breaths with a timer or using chest straps that need to be fitted. The newly-approved Mas (Read more...)
nView Medical’s Fast 3D Intraoperative Imaging with Less Radiation: Interview with CEO Cristian Atria
Fluoroscopy is used in surgical procedures to visualize structures and tools in real-time, allowing surgeons to monitor the movement of a device, instrument, or body part. However, fluoroscopy is a 2D technology that can lead to surgical inaccuracies. Alternative 3D imaging systems provide higher accuracy, but they sometimes require pausing the sur (Read more...)
Artificial Self-Assembled Blood Vessels
A team of researchers headed by groups at University of Nottingham and Queen Mary University London have come up with a smart material that forms into new blood vessels. Made out of graphene oxide and a protein, the material is 3D printed and naturally forms into tubular shapes that are very similar to blood vessels. […]
RESPMETER Opioid Overdose Detector Wins FDA Breakthrough Device Status
Altair Medical recently announced that it received FDA Breakthrough Device status for its RESPMETER wearable biosensor. The biosensor is a chest-worn wireless sensor that can detect Opioid Indused Respiratory Depression (OIRD), a common and often fatal side effect of using opioid drugs. The biosensor monitors respiratory patterns and analyses them (Read more...)
New HydroPICC Prevents Clogged Central Line Catheters
Access Vascular, based in Bedford, Massachusetts, won FDA clearance for the latest version of its HydroPICC anti-thrombogenic central line catheter. As with the original, which was cleared two years ago, the new device features Access’s unique “bulk-hydrophilic” material that prevents clogging by being rich in water while carrying (Read more...)
FDA Clears First Pulse Oximeter to Measure Breathing Rate
Masimo just received the first FDA clearance for a fingertip pulse oximeter that can measure respiration rate. The MightySat Rx spot-check pulse oximeter includes a technology known as Respiration Rate from the Pleth (RRP) that makes it unnecessary to perform manual counts or use chest electrodes to measure respiration rate. The device can be used (Read more...)
Device Prints Scaffolds Inside Wounds to Replace Lost Tissue
3D printing of artificial scaffolds intended to replace injured tissues has become a ballyhooed technology that’s yet to prove itself in clinical practice. One issue that complicates things is that the scaffolds have to match the volume that they’ll be replacing, in both shape and the direction in which cells will have to grow. To [&hel (Read more...)
FUJIFILM’s AI Colonic Polyp Detector Cleared in Europe
FUJIFILM is introducing a new technology that is capable of automatically detecting suspected polyps in real-time during colonoscopy exams. Called CAD EYE, the technology consists of hardware and software components that are compatible with the company’s ELUXEO 7000 endoscopy system. CAD EYE relies on FUJIFILM’s REiLI, an AI platform de (Read more...)
Fist Assist Helps Prep Vein for Dialysis Surgery, Lead to Healthy Fistula
Fist Assist Devices, a small Silicon Valley firm, won the European CE Mark for its eponymous wearable device. The Fist Assist works to widen the vein diameter in preparation for fistula placement and to help with fistula vein dilation in patients requiring hemodialysis. It is worn on the arm twice a day starting at about […]
(Read more...)Stain and Label-Free Microscopy Enables Imaging of Extracellular Vesicles
Researchers at the Beckman Institute of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign have developed a method that employs ultrashort laser pulses to visualize extracellular vesicles in tissue samples without using stains or labeling compounds. An increase in the number of these small vesicles is known to be associated with cancer, whereby c (Read more...)
Surfacer FDA Cleared for Unusual Dialysis Central Venous Access
The right internal jugular vein is typically the ideal access point for performing hemodialysis via a central venous catheter. Yet, in close to half of patients there’s an obstruction that makes this either a serious challenge or an impossibility. Now, a device called the Surfacer Inside-Out Access Catheter System has been cleared via the FDA (Read more...)
Scientists Make Organs Transparent
Whole organs are difficult to study in minute detail, as they have to be sliced into extremely thin sections to map out their interior. CT and magnetic resonance imaging help to an extent, but researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, and Technical University of Munich in Germany have managed to make [ (Read more...)
Artificial Tissue Patches to Heal Damaged Hearts
Post myocardial infarction (heart attack), damaged heart tissue doesn’t tend to heal very well. Not only is the pumping action weakened due to muscle cells dying, but the electrical signaling through the heart can also be impeded. Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have now developed remarkable new patches that mimic the electrical conducti (Read more...)
Electronic Bandage Delivers Drugs, Leaves No Scar
Chronic wounds, such as those associated with diabetes, can be incredibly difficult to manage. Even the process of accessing and medicating the wound can be detrimental to healing. Researchers from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Harvard Medical School, and University of Connecticut are now reporting on having developed an electronic bandage that c (Read more...)
3D Printed Implants With Layers of Living Cells
3D printing replacement tissues and organs is still in the early stages of development, but it is clear that custom printed implants will have to integrate multiple types of cells in different locations in order to perform like native tissues. Researchers at Rice University have just unveiled a new method of 3D printing solid plastic […]
Microsure MUSA Robot Used for First Time on Real Patients
In a world first, clinicians at Maastricht University have used a robot to perform “supermicrosurgeries”, which involved operating on vessels as small as 0.3 mm in diameter. The procedures were conducted on women with lymphedema, a condition that arose as a result of breast cancer, whose lymphatic vessels were connected to veins to prov (Read more...)
Textiles from Human Cells for Replacement Vessels, Tissues, Organs
Scientists at University of Bordeaux/French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) have developed a completely new biological material, made using human fibroblast cells, that can be turned into sutures, vascular grafts, and many other medical devices and tissue replacements. They showed that their Cell-Assembled extracellular M (Read more...)
New Customizable Bio-Ink for Printing Organs, Tissues
3D printing of tissues and organs requires a bio-ink that can host the living cells that are required for every unique application. A viable construct requires an extracellular matrix that will have the right mechanical and biochemical properties for the intended cells. Researchers at Rutgers University believe they’re on track to being able (Read more...)