Hospitals, surgeons’ offices, doctors’ offices, and medical centres all face the same problem: how do you safely dispose off the large amount of fluids generated by surgeries or other medical procedures?
These fluids may include blood, urine or spinal fluid as well as saline solution that is used to irrigate wounds. These fluids can contain pathogens, such as HIV or hepatitis.
Fluid management is done by sucking into canisters that hold approximately one to three liters of fluid. The canisters can be opened once they are full and either emptied down the drain or opened to allow the fluid to escape. This can expose healthcare workers to the fluid’s infectious agents. These risks can be significant because one surgery can lead to the filling of three or four containers.
Some hospitals have decided to put in a medical device that can help with this problem. suck the fluid out of the canisters directly into the drainIt is easy to pour without any pouring required. Workers still have to carry the canisters with them in order to connect them to another medical device.
A completely automated medical device has been developed by a new approach. Skyline Medical(NASDAQ:SKLN). Called the STREAMWAY® System and approved by the FDA, this innovative direct-to-drain waste management product collects, measures and disposes of surgical waste directly to the facilities drainage system without handling of fluid waste or additional labor typically required to move equipment or materials to a sink or utility closet for dumping.
The new medical device virtually eliminates the risk that medical personnel, such as nurses and doctors, will be exposed to the fluid. Because infectious agents can be quickly neutralized at the sewage treatment plant, the device is completely secure.
Skyline’s potential caught the eye of others in the biomedical field.
Skyline announced that it had signed a definitive merger agreement with San Antonio-based CytoBioscience. This company makes devices and instruments for human research, which measure the cell’s response to drugs.
