'Surgical' cling film could save lives
Montag, 8 Juni 2009
THE world's first surgical ‘cling film', which acts as a barrier to air, blood and other fluids, will be showcased at Latin America's largest medical trade fair by Leeds-based Tissuemed.
It's taken six years of reserach and development to perfect TissuePatch - a range of ultra thin, synthetic and highly adherent films that have the potential to revolutionise surgical procedures
More adherent than surgical glues, TissuePatch is easy to apply, requires no preparation and is effective within 30 seconds of contact.
Most impressively the effective volume of foreign material used to achieve the desired surgical outcome is dramatically less than that required for equivalent coverage with any traditional liquid or fleece-type of product.
Its elasticity and conformability means it works like a surgical ‘cling-film' and has been optimised to address the very specific demands of different surgical environments and tissue types.
It is also transparent to allow operators to visualise the underlying tissues. Its currently being used for sealing air leaks in lung surgery, cerebro-spinal fluid leaks in brain and spinal surgery and on a variety of organs in general surgery where blood and fluid leakage need to be prevented.
Nick Woods, chief executive of Tissuemed, said: "We are totally convinced that TissuePatch will revolutionise the way many surgical procedures are carried out and our enthusiasm is already being shared with surgeons.
"In addition to our own efforts to commercialise the TissuePatch family there are many products in surgery which could benefit from this
"sticky polymer" technology and through what we call our technology partnering programme we hope to find potential development partners in areas we may not even have considered thus far."
Tissuemed, which is a world leader in the field of using adhesive polymers in medical applications, said it is keen to access the Latin America healthcare market and will be using the medical fair to source new commercial distribution partners across the region.
Currently, more than 300 healthcare technology companies operate out of Yorkshire including international corporations such as Smith & Nephew, Johnson & Johnson, Reckitt Benkiser, and Seven Seas.
The sector is growing four times faster than in other UK regions and employs more than 10,000 people thanks to one of the country’s highest concentrations of medical device companies, exceptional access to clinical trials, pioneering research and development, and specialist skills in surgical instrumentation, orthopaedics and advanced wound care. The region also boasts one of Europe’s largest teaching hospitals.