The world’s first surgical cling film designed for minimising leaks encountered during surgical procedures was launched by Tissuemed in 2007 and now the company has unveiled its new iteration, dedicated to addressing the specific challenges of lung surgery.
The pioneering technology is was showcased at the 18th European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) in Spain (30 May -2 June 2010).
Published data suggests that residual air leaks are present following 70% of lung surgeries and up to 15% of these can be prolonged and problematic. If the surgeon can reduce the number and duration of air leaks, patients can have surgical drains removed more quickly, suffer fewer complications and be discharged from hospital more quickly.
TissuePatchThoracic has been specifically designed to enable thoracic surgeons to seal air leaks encountered during complicated lung surgery cases in which part of the lung is resected, most commonly for tumour removal. Surgical resection lines are usually closed with staples, and the addition of TissuePatchThoracic adhesive film over these staple lines provides the surgeon with reassurance that air will not leak through the tissue and between the staples.
The new product - TissuePatchThoracic - an ultra thin adhesive film, is more resilient, more conformable to the tissues and possesses improved handling characteristics compared with its predecessor. The film works by bonding to proteins on the surface of internal organs and tissues, enhancing traditional suture or staple line closure and supporting healing tissues. TissuePatchThoracic requires no advance preparation and is easy to apply to often complex tissue surfaces.
Mr Kostas Papagiannopoulos, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon from St James’s Hospital in Leeds, UK states “I’ve used the new product and it represents an improvement over the original. It’s stronger, softer and ultimately conforms to lung tissues better.”
In addition, the range now incorporates dedicated sizes and instruments which enable surgeons to use the product in keyhole procedures, known as Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS). A cleverly designed loading device takes the patch directly from the packaging into a delivery tube in one easy, direct movement, ready to be dispensed directly onto the target area
Ahead of the ESTS congress Tissuemed CEO Nick Woods comments; “Surgeons tell me that air leaks are always a problem in thoracic surgery. With the introduction of TissuePatchThoracic we believe we have addressed the key challenge of providing a solution that is easy to use, effective and economically justifiable. Reducing time in hospital is better for patients and represents a significant potential cost saving, all important in these days of squeezed budgets and focus on economic outcomes.”
“We’ve listened closely to thoracic surgeons so it is with a great deal of confidence that we are introducing this product. The technology is based on our successful TissuePatch3 platform, so it’s far from being an unproven technology. TissuePatchThoracic requires no preparation and provides instant results in surgery. Coupled with the new VATS instrumentation and the strong economic arguments for resolving air leaks we believe uptake of TissuePatchThoracic will be significant.”
For more information visit
www.tissuemed.com