FDA-Approved Device Improves Managing of Medical Fluids

Hospitals, surgical facilities, doctors’ offices, and medical centers all face the same problem: how to safely dispose of the substantial amount of fluids that take place during surgeries and other medical procedures.These fluids include blood, urine, spinal fluid, ascites fluid and saline solution used to irrigate wounds and surgical incisions. Since they may contain pathogens like HIV or hepatitis, they can be dangerous.The standard method for managing fluids is suctioning into canisters, typically about one to three liters each. Once full, the canisters are either opened, and the fluid is dumped down the drain or opened and a solidifier is added and the canisters are then handled as regulated waste. These activities can expose medical workers to the infectious agents in the fluid. Given that a single surgery can fill up three or four containers, the risks can be substantial.That’s why some hospitals have moved to install a medical device that can suck the fluid out of the canisters directly into the drain,with no pouring needed. But that still requires the canisters to be carted around by workers to connect them to a secondary medical device.Now there’s a better approach, a completely automated medical device developed by 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.This new medical device thus virtually eliminates the possibility that doctors, nurses, and other medical staffers will be exposed to pathogens in the fluid. The device is completely safe, because infectious agents are quickly neutralized at the sewage treatment facility.Skyline’s potential has caught the attention of the others in the biomedical community.Skyline announced the signing of a definitive agreement to merge with San Antonio-based CytoBioscience, a maker of devices and instruments used for human research that measure how cells react to drugs.