Medical device company Access Vascular has announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study of its HydroPICC peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) in the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine. The retrospective study found that HydroPICC “significantly reduced” clot formation and failures, compared with conventional polyurethane PICCs, a press release states.
The release goes on to say that, of the estimated 2.7 million PICCs placed in US patients each year, roughly 95% are made from polyurethane, with occlusion rates ranging from 7.4 to 35%—meaning that there are hundreds of thousands of polyurethane-related PICC occlusions each year in the US alone.
This retrospective study investigated whether the HydroPICC, constructed of a novel hydrophilic biomaterial with Access Vascular’s Mimix technology, reduced thrombotic catheter occlusions compared to polyurethane devices in 121 patients who received a PICC as part of their medical care.
The study results, the release details, demonstrated no occlusions or replacements in the 60 HydroPICC insertions, while 13 catheter occlusions were reported in the 61 polyurethane insertions catheter group and eight outright PICC replacements (13%).
“Reducing clot formation in PICCs helps to reduce delays in treatment, unscheduled catheter replacements, the risk of infection, and overall total cost of medical care,” said James Biggins, co-founder and CEO of Access Vascular. “If we conservatively project out the cost savings on just replacement devices seen in this study, there could easily be an annual savings of US$80 million in the US—and, most importantly, greatly improve the standard of care for patients.”
Access Vascular’s platform of biomaterial-based vascular access devices is “designed to help reduce the most common and costly complications associated with vascular access procedures: infection, thrombosis, and phlebitis”, the release explains. Recently published clinical data for the HydroMid midline catheter showed six-fold failure reduction compared with a standard polyurethane device.
“This study validates the dramatic reduction in complications I’ve seen since switching to Access Vascular’s devices, and I’m excited to share these results with the greater clinical community,” said Joseph Bunch (Professional Nursing Services, Chicago, USA), lead author of the study. “Innovations, such as Access Vascular’s clot-resistant technology, which help patients and clinicians alike by improving the standard of care, should be widely adopted by healthcare practitioners.”
