Prototype Development and Clinical Evaluation of a Surgical Swab Washer

术中细胞挽救(ICS)是一项成熟的技术，它使手术中丢失的红细胞能够被捕获并返回给患者。与输血相比，ICS已得到广泛的临床和成本效益的认可。在手术过程中，大约30%的失血被外科拭子吸收。人类血液被认为是一种如此宝贵的资源，一些医院试图回收这些血液，并通过在生理盐水中手动清洗棉签将其引导到ICS系统。这是一个缓慢、费力和肮脏的过程，并伴随着健康和安全风险。斯瓦布科技有限公司开发了一种棉签洗涤器原型，它可以在无菌环境中自动高效地从棉签中提取血液。实验室测试已经证明，该设备的红细胞产量比手工擦拭获得的结果更高。该项目的目的是进一步开发原型，并在手术室对其进行评估，从而获得监管部门的批准并将其商业化。自动拭子洗涤器将使拭子清洗在英国和国外得到广泛采用，并增加使用ICS可回收的血量，提高ICS的生存能力和成本效益，以及现有设备的投资回报。这将使患者和手术室工作人员受益，节省血液成本，并为有最大临床需求的患者保存宝贵的血液储备。手术室工作人员将不再需要手动清洗棉签，这将减少他们暴露在与处理人类血液相关的危险中，并降低微生物污染的风险。综合市场研究表明，该设备具有巨大的商业潜力，英国市场规模为300万GB，基于目前ICS的使用情况，全球出口市场为3500万GB。ICS的使用量正在显著增长，特别是在没有血库的发展中国家。

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.