Prototype Development and Clinical Evaluation of a Surgical Swab Washer

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Intra-operative Cell Salvage (ICS) is an established technique that enables red blood cells lostduring surgery to be captured and returned to the patient. ICS has widely recognised clinicaland cost benefits in comparison with blood transfusions.During surgery approximately 30% of blood loss is soaked up in surgical swabs. Humanblood is considered to be such a valuable resource that some hospitals attempt to recover thisblood and direct it to the ICS system by manually washing the swabs in saline. This is a slow,laborious and dirty process with associated health and safety hazards.SwabTech Ltd has developed a prototype swab washer which can automatically andefficiently extract blood from swabs in a sterile environment. Lab tests have proven that thisdevice results in higher red blood cell yields than those achieved by manual swab washing.The aim of this project is to develop the prototype further and evaluate it within operatingtheatres leading to regulatory approval and commercialisation of the device. An automaticswabwasher will enable the widespread adoption of swab washing in the UK and abroad andincrease the amount of blood that can be recovered using ICS, enhancing the viability and costeffectiveness of ICS and the return on investment from existing equipment. There will bebenefits to patients and operating theatre staff, savings on blood costs and the preservation ofvaluable blood stocks for patients with the greatest clinical need. Operating theatre staff willbe released from the requirement to manually wash swabs which will reduce their exposure tothe hazards associated with handling human blood and reduce the risk of microbialcontamination.Comprehensive market research indicates the device has significant commercial potential witha UK market size of £3M and a worldwide export market of £35M based on the current use ofICS which is growing significantly, particularly in developing countries that do not havenational blood banks.